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

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 children’s quality of life (QoL) has not been studied. Methods: A prospective single-unit cohort study used a validated QoL survey (Otitis Media-6 [OM-6]) to determine the impact of VT placement on QoL. The OM-6 survey uses a Likert scale, with the higher the value on the Likert scale, the poorer the QoL perceived. Results: Seventy-six children with a mean (range) age of 6 (0.5–13) years were recruited for this study. The overall mean OM-6 score for the 76 children was 3.2. Twenty-six children proceeded to surgery. The mean OM-6 score in this cohort preoperatively was 4.5 and reduced to 1.35 at 3 months post-VT placement. Conclusion: This study highlights the poor QoL experienced by Irish children with OME. The OM-6 scores are considerably higher in our series than previously published international series. VT insertion leads to an improvement in QoL scores. This validated questionnaire should be a routine adjunct in the holistic management of children with OME.