Disease-specific Quality of Life in Irish Children with Otitis Media with Effusion

Abstract Introduction: Otitis media with effusion (OME) is one of the most common diseases of childhood and causes significant morbidity for children. The benefits of ventilation tubes (VTs) are well established, but the subjective impact of surgery on Irish childrens quality of life (QoL) has not been studied. Methods: A prospective singleunit cohort study used a validated QoL survey (OtitisMedia6 [OM6]) to determine the impact of VT placement on QoL. The OM6 survey uses a Likertscale, with the higher the value on the Likert scale, the poorer the QoL perceived. Results: Seventysixchildren with a mean (range) age of 6 (0.513) years were recruited for this study. The overall mean OM6 score for the 76 children was 3.2. Twentysix children proceeded to surgery. The mean OM6score in this cohort preoperatively was 4.5 and reduced to 1.35 at 3 months postVT placement. Conclusion: This study highlights the poor QoL experienced by Irish children with OME. TheOM6 scores are considerably higher in our series than previously published international series. VTinsertion leads to an improvement in QoL scores. This validated questionnaire should be a routine adjunct in the holistic management of children with OME (PDF) Disease-specific Quality of Life in Irish Children with Otitis Media with Effusion. Available from: https: www.researchgate.net publication 380395979_Disease-specific_Quality_of_Life_in_Irish_Children_with_Otitis_Media_with_Effusion [accessed May 08 2024].