The effects of childhood otitis media on the acoustic reflex threshold at age 15

Previous research has found that childhood otitis media leads to elevated adulthood acoustic reflex thresholds because of worsened audiometric thresholds in the stimulation ear, and abnormality of the tympanic membrane in the ear from which acoustic reflexes were measured. To confirm and expand this finding, our research utilized longitudinal data from 631 general-population-sampled children assessed between ages 5 and 15. Otitis media was assessed to age 9, audiometric thresholds were measured at age 11, and otoscopy and acoustic reflex thresholds testing were performed at age 15. Our findings support the earlier research, in that acoustic reflex threshold was higher in those with the worst experience of childhood otitis media. However, this was directly mediated not by audiometric threshold in the ear to which the stimulus was delivered, but by the amount of tympanic membrane abnormality in both the stimulus and probe ears. This appeared to have an effect independent of audiometric threshold. Furthermore, only those who suffered the worst, persistent, binaural childhood otitis media showed raised acoustic reflex thresholds.