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Burden of otitis media and pneumonia in children up to 6 years of age: results of the LISA birth cohort

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Abstract

Infections play an important role in childhood. For Germany, few data are available on the epidemiology of infectious diseases such as otitis media and pneumonia in children. We therefore described the prevalence, first episode proportions and recurrence of these childhood infection diseases in selected regions of Germany in children up to 6 years of age. The analysis was based on data from the LISA Study, a prospective population-based birth cohort study including 3,097 full-term infants. Information was collected by parent questionnaire. The first episode proportions for the first 6 years of life were high for otitis media (66.7%; 95%CI 0.65–0.69) and pneumonia (13.5%; 95%CI 0.12–0.15). The annual first episode proportions for otitis media ranged from 7.3% to 25.6% and for pneumonia from 1.4% to 3.4%; both peaked during the second year. The average number of otitis media episodes was 2.2 (SD 2.0) episodes per child within the first 2 years. During the first 2 years of life, hospitalisations due to otitis and pneumonia occurred in up to 7.8‰ and 3.0‰ of the children, respectively. On average, 50.6% of the children with otitis media were treated with antibiotics during the first year of life. In conclusion, this analysis shows that infectious diseases, especially otitis media, are very frequent childhood diseases in Germany. Thus, parents and physicians should not per se worry about a high frequency of otitis media during early childhood.

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Acknowledgements

We thank all of the families for their participation. ES was responsible for data analysis, interpretation of data and manuscript preparation. ES and JH developed the design and analysis plan of this study. SS, JH and JL assisted in the interpretation of results and critical revision of the manuscript. OH, MB, BS, UK, AvB, H-E W and JH were responsible for the data collection and critical revision of the manuscript. The LISA Study was supported by grants 01 EG 9732 and 01 EG 9705/2 from the Federal Ministry for Education, Science, Research and Technology.

Conflict of interest

None of the authors had any conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Epidemiology, Helmholtz Zentrum Munich, Center for Environment and Health, Ingolstädter Landstrasse 1, 85764, Neuherberg, Germany

    Eva Schnabel, Stefanie Sausenthaler, Inken Brockow, H.-Erich Wichmann & Joachim Heinrich

  2. Dr. von Haunersches Kinderspital, Children’s Hospital, Ludwig Maximilians University, Munich, Germany

    Johannes Liese

  3. Department Human Exposure Research and Epidemiology, UFZ Helmholtz Zentrum for Environmental Research, Leipzig, Germany

    Olf Herbarth

  4. Department Environmental Medicine and Hygiene, University of Leipzig, Faculty of Medicine, Leipzig, Germany

    Olf Herbarth

  5. Department of Pediatrics, University of Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany

    Borte Michael

  6. Municipal Hospital “St. Georg”, Leipzig Children’s Hospital, Leipzig, Germany

    Borte Michael

  7. Medical Practice for Pediatrics, Bad Honnef, Germany

    Beate Schaaf

  8. Department of Epidemiology, IUF, Enviromental Health Research Institute, Duesseldorf, Germany

    Ursula Krämer

  9. Department of Pediatrics, Marien-Hospital Wesel, Wesel, Germany

    Andrea von Berg

  10. Institute of Medical Data Management, Biometrics and Epidemiology, Ludwig Maximilians University, Munich, Germany

    H.-Erich Wichmann

Authors
  1. Eva Schnabel
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  2. Stefanie Sausenthaler
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  3. Inken Brockow
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  4. Johannes Liese
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  5. Olf Herbarth
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  6. Borte Michael
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  7. Beate Schaaf
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  8. Ursula Krämer
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  9. Andrea von Berg
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  10. H.-Erich Wichmann
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  11. Joachim Heinrich
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Correspondence to Eva Schnabel.

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Schnabel, E., Sausenthaler, S., Brockow, I. et al. Burden of otitis media and pneumonia in children up to 6 years of age: results of the LISA birth cohort. Eur J Pediatr 168, 1251–1257 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00431-008-0921-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00431-008-0921-9

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