This Article  • Full text  • PDF  • Reply to article  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Citation map  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Similar articles in this journal  Topic Collections  • Middle/ External Ear Disorders  • Pediatric Otolaryngology  • Pediatrics  • Pediatrics, Other  • Alert me on articles by topic  Social Bookmarking   What's this?

Jong Bin Kim, MD; Dong Choon Park, MD, PhD; Chang Il Cha, MD, PhD; Seung Geun Yeo, MD, PhD

Arch Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg. 2007;133(4):379-382.

Objective  To investigate the relationship between pediatric otitis media with effusion and obesity, as determined by body mass index (BMI) (calculated as weight in kilograms divided by height in meters squared) and serum triglyceride (TG) and total cholesterol (TC) concentrations.

Design  A prospective, nonrandomized, case-control study.

Setting  University-affiliated hospital.

Subjects  The experimental group comprised 155 children aged 2 to 7 years, who received unilateral or bilateral ventilation tube insertion for the treatment of otitis media with effusion. The control group comprised 118 children with no history of otitis media with effusion, who underwent operations for conditions other than ear diseases. Based on BMI and serum TG and TC concentrations, we divided the experimental group into 2 subgroups, those who were and were not obese.

Main Outcome Measures  We determined the difference between the experimental and control groups in BMI and serum TG and TC concentrations and the difference between the obese and nonobese subgroups in frequency of ventilation tube insertion.

Results  Mean ± SD BMI (22.0 ± 3.4 vs 16.3 ± 2.4) (P = .01) and mean ± SD TC level (195.0 ± 31.0 mg/dL vs 159.3 ± 26.9 mg/dL [5.05 ± 0.80 mmol/L vs 4.13 ± 0.70 mmol/L]) (P = .04), but not mean serum TG level (109.4 ± 40.4 mg/dL vs 90.0 ± 52.3 mg/dL [1.24 ± 0.46 mmol/L vs 1.02 ± 0.59 mmol/L]) (P = .13), were significantly higher in the experimental group than in the control group. Frequency of ventilation tube insertion, however, did not differ significantly between the obese and nonobese subgroups, whether divided by BMI (P = .10) or serum TG (P = .12) or TC (P = .07) concentration.

Conclusion  Childhood obesity may be associated with the occurrence of otitis media with effusion.

Author Affiliations: Department of Otorhinolaryngology, College of Medicine, Kyung Hee University, Seoul, Korea (Drs Kim, Cha, and Yeo), and Department of Obstetric and Gynecology, College of Medicine, Catholic University, Suwon, Korea (Dr Park).

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter     What's this?