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Passive smoking and nonrecurrent acute otitis media in children
J F Lubianca Neto1, A G Burns, L Lu
1Department of Ophthalmo-Otorhinolaryngology, Federal Foundation of Medical Sciences at Porto Alegre, Hospital da Criança Santo Antônio (Division of Otorhinolaryngology, Complexo Hospitalar Santa Casa de Porto Alegre), Brazil.
Introduction:
It remains uncertain whether passive smoking is a risk factor (RF) for nonrecurrent acute otitis media (AOM). The aim of this study was to evaluate whether exposure to second-hand smoke at home increased the prevalence of an isolated single episode of nonrecurrent AOM in children.
Methods And Material:
We performed a cross-sectional study with 192 children younger than 3 years who were seen at a general pediatric clinic. A questionnaire was used to quantify the exposure to cigarette smoke at home and to assess other RFs for AOM. The diagnosis of AOM was made by pediatricians using otoscopy. The results of the associations were reported by prevalence ratios with 95% confidence intervals. Multiple logistic regression was used to investigate the role of confounding variables among other potential RFs and passive smoking.
Results:
The prevalence ratio of an isolated single episode of nonrecurrent AOM between patients exposed and those not exposed to passive smoking was 0.82 (0.67 to 1.02). In logistic regression, any RF changed the main association significantly.
Conclusion:
Exposure to passive smoking did not change the prevalence of an isolated single episode of nonrecurrent AOM in children.