Middle Ear Effusion in Children With Cerebral Palsy: a Case-control Study at the Kenyatta National Hospital.
Abstract
Background: Otitis Media with Effusion remains an important cause of preventable hearing loss
in children. This condition negatively affects a child’s speech and language development.
Children with developmental difficulties are vulnerable to the adverse outcomes of chronic otitis
media with effusion, which can worsen the already existing developmental delays.
Main Objective: To determine whether children with cerebral palsy are at a higher risk of
developing middle ear effusion than those without cerebral palsy at the Kenyatta National
Hospital.
Study Design and Setting: This was a case-control study on middle ear effusion in children
with cerebral palsy versus those without at the Kenyatta National hospital clinics from July 2020
to February 2021.
Methodology: One hundred and twenty-four children aged between six months and seven years
were recruited into the study comprising sixty-two cases and sixty-two controls. History and
physical examination including pneumatic otoscopy was done followed by tympanometric
evaluation of the middle ear.
Data Analysis and Presentation: Prevalence of middle ear effusion between case and controls
was analyzed and presented as percentages with odds ratio and p-values calculated for
significance. Pearson chi-square test was used to analyse the relationship between specific risk
factors and development of middle ear effusion in children with cerebral palsy. A P value of
<0.05 for a 95% confidence interval was considered significant.
Results: There were 74 (59.67%) males and 50(40.37%) females with a mean age of 21 months
+/- 15.1 months. Middle ear effusion was found in 14(22.6%) of the cases and 7(11.3%) of the
controls. The difference was however not statistically significant (p=0.094).Very low birth
weight and duration of exclusive breast-feeding for less than six months were significantly
associated with middle ear effusion among the cases ( p=0.014 OR 10.16 95% CI 1.051-2.805;
p=0.011 OR 3.19 95% CI 1.230-6.320) respectively. Majority of the patients had tympanogram
type A 62(50.0%) followed by As 20 (16.7%), with type B being seen in 14(10.0%) of the study
population.
Conclusion: Children with cerebral palsy were two times more likely to develop middle ear
effusion compared to controls although this was not statistically significant.
Publisher
University of Nairobi
Rights
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United StatesUsage Rights
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/Collections
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