Kids who live with smokers have more ear infections
Kids whose parents smoke are more likely to get ear infections and have hearing problems, according to a new review paper.
When moms lit up, kids were also almost twice as likely to need
surgery for recurrent ear infections or similar problems, researchers
reported.
"It's pretty impressive, especially since ear infections cause
enormous pain," said Dr. Michael Weitzman, who studies the effects of
parental smoking at New York University Medical Center and was not
involved in the study.
The new paper "once again highlights a common child health
problem that is profoundly influenced by mothers' smoking," he told
Reuters Health, "and it focuses our attention more than previous studies
have on it resulting in surgical procedures for children."
Taken together, the studies showed that kids living with a smoker
had a 37 percent higher risk of any "middle ear disease," including ear
infections and hearing problems -- and a 62 percent higher risk if the
household smoker was their mom.
When mothers smoked, kids were also 86 percent more likely to get
surgery for a middle ear condition, including recurrent ear infections,
than if no smokers were in the house.
About three out of four kids have had an ear infection by the time they are three years old.
Dr. Joseph DiFranza, a tobacco researcher from the University of
Massachusetts Medical School in Worcester, said that increased risk of
surgery -- which now usually involves putting a tube in the ear to drain
out fluid -- is especially worrisome.
"Ear infections themselves are very common, but the surgery is not," he told Reuters Health.
Experts speculate that exposure to secondhand smoke may cause
tubes in the ear to get inflamed and block up. Water could then leak
into an empty pocket behind the ear drum, creating an ideal environment
for bacteria to grow and cause infection.
"There are going to be kids who live in families with smokers who
don't get ear infections," said Kathleen Daly, who studies ear
infections at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. But living
with a smoker "definitely puts the child at higher risk," she told
Reuters Health.
The review's authors, led by Laura Jones of the University of
Nottingham in England, calculated that if secondhand smoke does indeed
cause ear infections, about 130,000 of close to 2 million middle ear
diseases in UK kids in 2008 would be due to parents lighting up.
Additionally, 293,000 cases of frequent ear infections in the
U.S., out of about 4.5 million annually, would be attributed to
secondhand smoke from the home, they reported in the Archives of
Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine.
Parents' smoking has also been linked to asthma and allergy
problems in kids, and moms who smoke while pregnant also put their baby
at risk for sudden infant death.
Weitzman pointed out that the review didn't take into account
other consequences of ear infections in kids -- such as parents' missed
work days, and extra antibiotic prescriptions breeding resistant
bacteria.
Source: By GENEVRA PITTMAN
Manila Bulletin
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