Pneumonia diagnosis significantly associated with chronic otitis media, finds study

Pneumonia is the single largest infectious cause of death in children worldwide. Pneumonia killed 740 180 children under the age of 5 in 2019, accounting for 14% of all deaths of children under five years old but 22% of all deaths in children aged 1 to 5. Pneumonia and chronic otitis media (COM) are most common cause of infection among people, they share a common pathophysiological mechanism in terms of respiratory infection and inflammation, but the epidemiologic association between the 2 diseases has not been investigated.

A recent population study in International Journal of Infectious Diseases, by Sung Kyun Kim and team revealed that diagnosis of pneumonia was significantly associated with an increased incidence of COM.

The study used data from the Korean National Health Insurance Service-Health Screening Cohort were collected from 2002 to 2015. A 1:4 stratified cohort matched for age, sex, income, and residence region composing the COM group (n=23,436) and a control group (n=93,744) was selected. The crude and adjusted odds ratios (ORs) of pneumonia occurring before the index date for COM were analyzed using a conditional logistic regression model. In addition, ORs of the number of diagnoses of pneumonia (≥5 times vs. <5 times) for COM were analyzed.

The results of the study were

• The incidence of pneumonia (9.3%) was significantly higher (p<0.001) in the COM group than in the control group (7.2%).

• The ORs of pneumonia were significantly higher in the COM group than in the control group. Pneumonia (adjusted OR=1.31, 95% confidence interval [CI]=1.25–1.38, p<0.001) increased the ORs for COM in all ages and gender.

• Pneumonia being diagnosed ≥5 times before the index date showed higher ORs (adjusted OR=1.34, 95% CI=1.20–1.49, p<0.001) for COM than pneumonia being diagnosed <5 times.

Kim and team concluded that "Our population-based nationwide cohort study indicates that diagnosis of pneumonia was significantly associated with an increased incidence of COM."

Reference: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijid.2022.02.040