Release: May 12, 1998 Contact: Kenneth Satterfield
(703) 519-1563
email: [email protected]
In Palm Beach, FL (5/9-5/14)
(561) 653-6332
ACUTE OTITIS MEDIA: A MEDICAL DISORDER THAT CAUSES PAIN
TO CHILDREN AND THE POCKETBOOK
PALM BEACH, FL -- What does $1,300 buy these days? For the most self-indulgent, this amount could purchase a large screen television or a new computer; for the adventurous, a round-trip ticket between Washington DC and Sydney, Australia. However, for parents of pre-school children, $1,300 is the cost of three months of treating the most common of all childhood medical disorders, otitis media, or middle ear infection. This is the conclusion reached by six medical researchers from Washington state in their study, "Measuring the Indirect and Direct Costs of Otitis Media."
Acute otitis media is the inflammation of the middle ear resulting from infection. It can occur in one or both ears; the disorder is the most frequent diagnosis recorded for children visiting a physician. It is also be the most common cause of hearing loss in children. Nationwide, the estimated total annual cost is over $3 billion; now this new study calculates the cost of an individual episode of medically treated acuteotitis media.
The results were presented before a meeting of the American Society of Pediatric Otolaryngology. The organization is currently meeting at a gathering of ten ear, nose, and throat societies being held May 9-16, 1998, at the Breakers Hotel, Palm Beach, FL, coordinated by the American Academy of Otolaryngology--Head and Neck Surgery Foundation.
The authors of the research study are Ramsey Alsarraf, MD, MPH, and George A. Gates, MD, both from the Department of Otolaryngology--Head and Neck Surgery, University of Washington School of Medicine and Jonathan Perkins, DO, and Chung I. Jung, MD, from the Madigan Army Medical Center, Tacoma, WA. Also participating in the research were Catherine Crowley, PhD, and Nicole W. Alsarraf. MES.
Methodology: Previous efforts to determine the cost of acute otitis media with effusion have estimated the direct and indirect costs of the illness and its treatment. Direct costs are defined as those associated with clinic visits and medications; indirect costs address the cost of parental time lost from work and transportation to and from the clinic. What had not been directly meaisconsidered in previous studies is the value of parental or care giver time. To consider this cost, researchers used a recognized survey instrument, the Otitis Media Diary (ODM), which measures each child's daily presence and severity of otitis media symptoms, amount of time spent by the primary care giver, and the medications used in each episode of illness.
A group of 25 children, ages 1-3, were enrolled in the study and followed over a three month period. Twelve children had otitis media, 13 were classified as "well." Examinations were scheduled for each child, and each parent was asked make appropriate entries in the ODM. The researchers developed an economic model that incorporated accepted government statistics that measured hourly costs for men and women. The result? The ODM provided a measurement tool which assessed the daily time of a parent taking care of a child with otitis media.
Results: With new data obtained from the Otitis Media Diary, the researchers found that indirect costs, accrued primarily by parental time lost from actual or imputed work, accounted for 87-92% of total costs attributable to otitis media during the three months after initial diagnosis. When added to other costs, total expenditures of caring for a child with otitis media ranged from $1,283-$1,377.
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Editors Note: Reporters interested in interviewing the presenters and/or obtaining additional information regarding the medical research should contact Ken Satterfield, Media Relations Director, American Academy of Otolaryngology--Head and Neck Surgery, at (703) 519-1563 (prior to May 8); or at COSM (through May 14), phone (561) 653-6332.
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