Department of Speech Language Pathology, College of Health Science, Honam University, Gwangju, Republic of Korea.
Department of Speech Language Pathology, School of Public Health, Honam University, 417, Eodeung-daero, Gwangsan-gu, Gwangju, Republic of Korea.
Sci Rep. 2019 Feb 7;9(1):1610. doi: 10.1038/s41598-018-38369-7.
Although many studies have reported that allergic rhinitis is an independent risk factor highly related to otitis media in children, there is still lack of epidemiological studies on demographics. The objective of this study was to identify if allergic rhinitis was an independent risk factor for otitis media in children aged between 7 and 12 years by using the nationwide survey data representing the local population of South Korea. This is a secondary study based on the ENT examination data (eg. acute otitis media, otitis media with effusion, chronic otitis media). The subjects of this study were 472 children (248 male and 224 female) who completed the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2015. The presence of otitis media was examined by otolaryngologists using tympanometric measurements, audiometric measurements, and otoscopic examination. Allergic rhinitis was diagnosed by Korean-version of International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood, a total serum immunoglobulin E test, an allergen-specific immunoglobulin E test, a blood eosinophil test, an eosinophil cationic protein test, a nasal cytology for eosinophils test, a skin reaction test, and an antigen simultaneous test. Confounding factors included age, gender, the levels of income for households, and household composition. The relationship between allergic rhinitis and otitis media was analyzed by a complex sample logistic regression analysis and the odds ratio and 95% confidence interval were presented. The results of a complex sample design logistic regression revealed that allergic rhinitis in children was significantly associated with otitis media (p < 0.05). Even after adjusting all confounding factors, children with allergic rhinitis had twice significantly higher risk of otitis (OR = 2.04; 95% CI: 1.30-3.18) than children without allergic rhinitis. This epidemiologic study confirmed the independent relationship between pediatric allergic rhinitis and otitis media. In the future, longitudinal study will be needed to verify causality of allergic rhinitis and otitis media.
虽然许多研究报告称过敏性鼻炎是与儿童中耳炎高度相关的独立危险因素，但在人口统计学方面仍缺乏流行病学研究。本研究的目的是通过使用代表韩国当地人群的全国性调查数据，确定过敏性鼻炎是否是 7 至 12 岁儿童中耳炎的独立危险因素。这是一项基于耳鼻喉科检查数据（例如急性中耳炎、分泌性中耳炎、慢性中耳炎）的二次研究。本研究的对象是 472 名儿童（248 名男性和 224 名女性），他们完成了 2015 年韩国国家健康和营养检查调查。耳鼻喉科医生通过鼓室压测量、听力测量和耳镜检查来检查中耳炎的存在。过敏性鼻炎通过韩国版的儿童国际哮喘和过敏研究、总血清免疫球蛋白 E 测试、过敏原特异性免疫球蛋白 E 测试、血液嗜酸性粒细胞测试、嗜酸性粒细胞阳离子蛋白测试、鼻细胞学嗜酸性粒细胞测试、皮肤反应测试和抗原同时测试来诊断。混杂因素包括年龄、性别、家庭收入水平和家庭构成。通过复杂样本逻辑回归分析和呈现比值比和 95%置信区间来分析过敏性鼻炎和中耳炎之间的关系。复杂样本设计逻辑回归的结果表明，儿童过敏性鼻炎与中耳炎显著相关（p<0.05）。即使在调整所有混杂因素后，患有过敏性鼻炎的儿童患中耳炎的风险也显著高出两倍（OR=2.04；95%CI：1.30-3.18），而没有过敏性鼻炎的儿童则没有。这项流行病学研究证实了儿童过敏性鼻炎与中耳炎之间的独立关系。未来需要进行纵向研究以验证过敏性鼻炎和中耳炎之间的因果关系。
