Risk Factors of Acute Otitis Media among Infants Children in Kerbala Pediatric Teaching Hospital: A Case-Control Study

Objective of the study: To explore the most prevalent risk factors those are associated with AOM among infant children. A case-control study design was carried out in the outpatient clinic at Kerbala pediatric teaching hospital, from the period from January 2017 to February 2019. A purposive sampling method of 100 infants was included in this study, 50 of them were infected with AOM and the others are not. A data were collected directly from infant’s parent by the researchers through the interviewing technique, then the collected data were analyzed by using the program of IBM Statistical Package of Social Sciences (SPSS) Version 24. The results of this study revealed that about 40%, 64% and 40% of infected infants were 7-9 months of age, females and urban residency respectively. The study showed a significant association between AOM and nasal obstruction at p-value 0.02, child’s position during feeding at p-value 0.00, mother’s position in case of bottle feeding at p-value 0.00, and using bottle feeding at night (for breast feeding infants) at p-value 0.002. Infants exposed to cigarette smoking, and that’s were using pacifiers when sleeping also identified a significant risk factors for AOM at p-value 0.00, and 0.00 respectively.