PEDIATRICS Vol. 102 No. 2 August 1998, pp. 346-354

Otitis Media, the Caregiving Environment, and Language and Cognitive Outcomes at 2 Years

Received Dec 22, 1997; accepted Mar 2, 1998.

Joanne E. Roberts^*, , Margaret R. Burchinal^{*, §}, Susan A. Zeisel^*, , Eloise C. Neebe^*, Stephen R. Hooper^{*, ¶}, Jackson Roush^*, , Donna Bryant^*, Martha Mundy^*, , and Frederick W. Henderson^{*, #}

From the ^* Frank Porter Graham Child Development Center, the  Division of Speech and Hearing Sciences, the  Department of Medical Allied Health, the ^§ Department of Psychology, the  School of Nursing, the ^¶ Department of Psychiatry, and the ^# Department of Pediatrics, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

Objective.  To examine the relationship between otitis media with effusion (OME) and associated hearing loss between 6 and 24 months of age and children's language and cognitive development at 2 years of age.

Study Design.  A prospective cohort design in which 86 African-American infants who attended group child-care centers were recruited between 6 and 12 months of age. Between 6 and 24 months, assessments included serial ear examinations using otoscopy and tympanometry, serial hearing tests, two ratings of the childrearing environment at home and in child care, and language and cognitive outcomes at 2 years.

Results.  Children experienced either unilateral or bilateral OME an average of 63% and reduced hearing sensitivity an average of 44% of the time between 6 and 24 months of age. Although proportion of time with OME or with hearing loss was modestly correlated with measures of language and cognitive skills, these relationships were no longer significant when the ratings of the home and child-care environments were also considered. Children with more OME or hearing loss tended to live in less responsive caregiving environments, and these environments were linked to lower performance in expressive language and vocabulary acquisition at 2 years.

Conclusions.  Both OME and hearing loss were more strongly related to the quality of home and child-care environments than to children's language and cognitive development. Study results might be explained either by suggesting that children in less responsive caregiving environments experience conditions that make them more likely to experience OME and/or by suggesting that it may be more difficult for caregivers to be responsive and stimulating with children with more OME.

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