Risk Factors of Otitis Media with Effusion among Preschool Children in Port Harcourt, Nigeria

Background: Otitis media with effusion (OME) is the commonest cause of hearing loss in children worldwide. It has a lot of host related and environmental factors that influence it’s development. These factors had remained controversial from previous studies done, thus necessitating this research. The aim of this study was to determine the risk factors associated with OME among children within the age of one to six years.

Methodology: This was a cross sectional study involving 226 preschool pupils selected by multi-staged sampling technique from ten (10) day-care and nursery schools from Port Harcourt metropolis, carried out between November 2014 and June 2015. Tympanometry was done on each participant and questionnaire was used to assess the risk factors associated with OME. Data was collected and analyzed using SPSS version-20.

Results: Among the 226 pupils, OME was diagnosed in 57 (25.2%) of the pupils. The pupils with upper respiratory tract infection (URTI), nasal allergy, upper respiratory obstruction and those who were in the prenursery age group showed significant association with OME. However, on further analysis with logistic regression, only URTI and being in the prenursery age group were found to be significant predictors of OME.

Conclusion: This study had shown that URTI, nasal allergy, upper respiratory obstruction and the prenursery age group are important risk factors of OME, with URTI and the prenursery age group being predicting factors of the disease.