The BOEL test as a screening device for otitis media in infants

Two hundred and forty-five infants with a mean age of nine months were given screening tests in private pediatric offices by two nurses. Low scores on the BOEL test, a measure of selective attention developed at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden, were found to be significantly associated with the presence of otitis media. Of the 12 items on the BOEL, only the four relating to auditory orienting behavior were discriminative. As a screening device for otitis media, these four items had a validity of 87 percent correct predictions, with 11 percent false positives but only two percent false negatives. BOEL scores also had positive correlations with three of four areas tested by the Denver Developmental Screening Test, but these relationships were modest in magnitude, suggesting that the BOEL and the DDST measure different aspects of the infant's behavior.