Introduction
Otitis media (OM) is a common childhood infection and the most common reason for paediatric surgery. Australian Aboriginal children have higher rates of OM than non-Aboriginal children; however, there is a paucity of data comparing OM hospitalisations and procedures at the population level.
Aim
We report rates for OM hospitalisation and myringotomy with ventilation tube insertion (MVTI) in a cohort of 469,589 Western Australian children, 1996-2012.
Methods
We used International Classification of Diseases diagnosis codes to identify hospitalisations for OM or MVTI surgical procedures for children aged <15 years. We calculated age-specific hospitalization rates per 1,000 child-years in Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal children by year of admission and area level socio-economic status.
Results
There were 534,674 hospitalisations among 221,588 children. Aboriginal children had higher rates for OM than non-Aboriginal children (23.3/1,000 [95% Confidence Interval (CI) 22.8,24.0] vs 2.4/1,000 [95% CI 2.3,2.4] child-years) with no change in disparity over time. Conversely non-Aboriginal children had higher rates of MVTI than Aboriginal children (13.5/1000 [13.2,13.8] vs 10.1 [8.9,11.4]). OM hospitalisation rates were higher among children from lower socio-economic areas while MVTI was more common among those from higher socio-economic areas. There was a decline in OM hospitalisation rates between 1998 and 2005 and remained stable thereafter.
Conclusions
Aboriginal children and those from lower socio-economic areas had more OM-related hospitalisations but fewer MVTIs. Despite a decrease in rates of OM and MVTI hospitalisations during the initial years of the study, the disparity between groups remained. A renewed focus on prevention is needed.