[Children with ear disorders who are treated by reflexologists or general practitioners]

The aim of the study was to describe similarities and differences in health, quality of life, and diagnosed morbidity in 0-6 year-old children whose parents contact either a reflexologist or a general practitioner (GP) due to their child's ear disorder.

A total of 98 children who received reflexology treatment and 57 children who received treatment by a GP were included. Reflexologists and GPs described the child's symptoms, the parents completed a questionnaire about health status and ear disorders and a specialist examined and diagnosed the child.

The most prevalent symptoms were colds and troubled sleep and the least prevalent were inflammation of the throat and poor spoken language. Parents in the reflexology group considered their children to be more ill than parents in the GP group (measured by number of ear disorders, number of antibiotic treatments, number of sickness days during the past year and the duration of the acute ear disorder). Furthermore, parents in the reflexology group reported that their children had more physical discomfort, more activity limitations and more emotional problems than children treated by GPs and the parents themselves were also more troubled by the ear disorder. The specialist examination showed no differences between the two groups of children, neither according to tympanometry nor according to diagnosis.

According to a medical evaluation there was no difference in morbidity between children treated by a reflexologist and a GP. According to the parents' evaluation, children in reflexology treatment were more ill and their health-related quality of life was more affected by the ear disorder than that of children treated by a GP.