Trends in otitis media-related health care use in the United States, 2001-2011.

ABSTRACT: Otitis media (OM) is a leading cause of pediatric health care visits and the most frequent reason children consume antibiotics or undergo surgery. During recent years, several interventions have been introduced aiming to decrease OM burden.To study the trend in OM-related health care use in the United States during the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV) era (2001-2011).An analysis of an insurance claims database of a large, nationwide managed health care plan was conducted. Enrolled children aged 6 years or younger with OM visits were identified.Annual OM visit rates, OM-related complications, and surgical interventions were analyzed.Overall, 7.82 million unique children (5.51 million child-years) contributed 6.21 million primary OM visits; 52% were boys and 48% were younger than 2 years. There was a downward trend in OM visit rates from 2004 to 2011, with a significant drop that coincided with the advent of the 13-valent vaccine (PCV-13) in 2010. The observed OM visit rates in 2010 (1.00/child-year) and 2011 (0.81/child-year) were lower than the projected rates based on the 2005-2009 trend had there been no intervention (P?

SUBMITTER: Marom T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3947317 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature