Secretory otitis media and language development: a six-year follow-up study with case-control

The 2nd Hjørring Cohort Study, a prospective cohort study, comprised 94% of the 463 three-year-old children residing in the municipality. Among this cohort we found 40 children (9%) who had constant signs of secretory otitis media (SOM), in one or both ears, at 4 examinations in the course of 6 months. Five years later, 12 of the children who had previously had long-lasting SOM had left the municipality. At the age of 8 years the entire cohort had a Silent Reading Word Test (OS-400). Six months later, the 26 children with long-lasting SOM who were still residing in the municipality and 26 control children were tested with the Revised Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test and the verbal part of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC) test. The controls were matched by sex, age, school, grade level, and controlled for classroom and social stratum. The children with long-lasting SOM did not score lower than the control children on the 3 tests. In a separate analysis children with long-lasting bilateral SOM did not score lower than their controls. On the WISC and PPVT-R tests the variability in the case group was greater than in the control group. More comprehensive and varied studies seem needed to elucidate the relationship between language development and SOM.