General illness and need of medical care in otitis prone children.

The frequency of acute infectious diseases and allergy was investigated in a group of 'otitis prone' children and a control group. A total of 252 children born between 1977 and 1981, prospectively followed and with six or more episodes of acute otitis media (AOM), were defined as an 'otitis prone' group. Of the children, 61% were boys and 39% were girls. The controls were 252 children randomly chosen from the population of Malmö and matched for age and sex. The medical records for both groups from the ages of 2 to 7 years were compared. The 'otitis prone' children accounted for an average number of ambulatory visits to the ENT or Paediatric clinics of 38.8 per child, compared with 9.2 in the control group, and had been hospitalized three times more often in the ENT department than the controls, and twice as often in the Paediatric department. The 'otitis prone' children accounted for more visits to the Orthopaedic clinic than the controls, but had not been hospitalized more often in the Surgical or orthopaedic departments. The 'otitis prone' children accounted for 2-4 times as many diagnoses of rhinopharyngitis, bacterial rhinitis/sinusitis and tonsillitis as controls, and significantly more diagnosed episodes of broncho/pulmonary, gastrointestinal and urinary tract infections. There were twice as many children in the 'otitis prone' group with allergic diseases as in the control group (37% vs. 17%). The findings showed the 'otitis prone' children to be more susceptible than the controls to different acute infectious diseases.