IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/plo/pone00/0280199.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Middle ear effusion, ventilation tubes and neurological development in childhood

Author

Listed:
  • Jonathan Thorsen
  • Tine Marie Pedersen
  • Anna-Rosa Cecilie Mora-Jensen
  • Elín Bjarnadóttir
  • Søren Christensen Bager
  • Hans Bisgaard
  • Jakob Stokholm

Abstract

Background: Otitis media with middle ear effusion (MEE) can be treated with ventilation tubes (VT) insertion, and it has been speculated that prolonged MEE in childhood can affect neurological development, which in turn may be important for later academic achievements. Objective: To investigate the association between middle ear effusion (MEE), treatment with ventilation tubes (VT) and childhood neurological development. Study design: We examined 663 children from the Copenhagen Prospective Studies on Asthma in Childhood 2010 (COPSAC2010) unselected mother-child cohort study. Children were followed by study pediatricians with regular visits from pregnancy until 3 years of age. MEE was diagnosed using tympanometry at age 1, 2 and 3 years. Information regarding VT from age 0–3 years was obtained from national registries. We assessed age at achievement of gross motor milestones from birth, language scores at 1 and 2 years, cognitive score at 2.5 years and general development score at age 3 years using standardized quantitative tests. Results: Children with MEE had a lower 1-year word production vs. children with no disease: (median 2, IQR [0–6] vs. 4, IQR [1–7]; p = 0.017), and a lower 1-year word comprehension (median 36; IQR [21–63] vs. 47, IQR [27–84]; p = 0.03). Children with VT had a lower 2-5-year cognitive score vs. children with no disease; estimate -2.34; 95% CI [-4.56;-0.12]; p = 0.039. No differences were found between children with vs. without middle ear disease regarding age at achievement of gross motor milestones, word production at 2 years or the general developmental score at 3 years. Conclusion: Our study supports the previous findings of an association between MEE and concurrent early language development, but not later neurological endpoints up to the age of 3. As VT can be a treatment of those with symptoms of delayed development, we cannot conclude whether treatment with VT had positive or negative effects on neurodevelopment.

Suggested Citation

  • Jonathan Thorsen & Tine Marie Pedersen & Anna-Rosa Cecilie Mora-Jensen & Elín Bjarnadóttir & Søren Christensen Bager & Hans Bisgaard & Jakob Stokholm, 2023. "Middle ear effusion, ventilation tubes and neurological development in childhood," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 18(1), pages 1-14, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0280199
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0280199
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0280199
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0280199&type=printable
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1371/journal.pone.0280199?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Nyaradi, Anett & Li, Jianghong & Hickling, Siobhan & Foster, Jonathan & Oddy, Wendy H., 2013. "The role of nutrition in children's neurocognitive development, from pregnancy through childhood," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 7, pages 1-1.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Prakash Sharma & Chitra Bahadur Budhathoki & Ram Krishna Maharjan & Jitendra Kumar Singh, 2023. "Nutritional status and psychosocial stimulation associated with cognitive development in preschool children: A cross-sectional study at Western Terai, Nepal," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 18(3), pages 1-14, March.
    2. Sehrish Naveed & Timo Lakka & Eero A. Haapala, 2020. "An Overview on the Associations between Health Behaviors and Brain Health in Children and Adolescents with Special Reference to Diet Quality," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(3), pages 1-20, February.
    3. Enza D’Auria & Barbara Borsani & Erica Pendezza & Alessandra Bosetti & Laura Paradiso & Gian Vincenzo Zuccotti & Elvira Verduci, 2020. "Complementary Feeding: Pitfalls for Health Outcomes," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(21), pages 1-19, October.
    4. Alex Proshin, 2023. "Impact of Child Subsidies on Child Health, Well-Being, and Investment in Child Human Capital: Evidence from Russian Longitudinal Monitoring Survey 2010–2017," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 39(1), pages 1-92, December.
    5. Vik, Frøydis Nordgård & Nilsen, Trude & Øverby, Nina Cecilie, 2022. "Aspects of nutritional deficits and cognitive outcomes – Triangulation across time and subject domains among students and teachers in TIMSS," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    6. T. Portlock & T. Shama & S. H. Kakon & B. Hartjen & C. Pook & B. C. Wilson & A. Bhuttor & D. Ho & I. Shennon & A. M. Engelstad & R. Lorenzo & G. Greaves & N. Rahman & C. Kelsey & P. D. Gluckman & J. M, 2025. "Interconnected pathways link faecal microbiota plasma lipids and brain activity to childhood malnutrition related cognition," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 16(1), pages 1-14, December.
    7. Han Zhang & Wing Chung Ho, 2022. "The Long-Term Effect of Famine Exposure on Cognitive Performance: Evidence from the 1959–1961 Chinese Famine," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(24), pages 1-14, December.
    8. Navarro, Ester Ph.D. & Pathare, Manali & Hilbert, Jacqueline, 2025. "From Group Comparisons to Individual Differences: A Researcher’s Manual to Test and Validate Models of Bilingual Variability," OSF Preprints 8c9br_v1, Center for Open Science.
    9. Ricarda Möhler & Olivia Wartha & Jürgen Michael Steinacker & Bertram Szagun & Susanne Kobel, 2020. "Parental Self-Efficacy as a Predictor of Children’s Nutrition and the Potential Mediator Effect between the Health Promotion Program “Join the Healthy Boat” and Children’s Nutrition," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(24), pages 1-16, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0280199. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: plosone (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.