THE CONTRIBUTION OF RISK-FACTORS TO THE EFFECT OF EARLY OTITIS-MEDIA WITH EFFUSION ON LATER LANGUAGE, READING, AND SPELLING

A cohort of 946 children who were screened for otitis media with effus ion (OME) from the ages of 2 to 4 were studied for language, reading, and spelling at 7 years of age, The effects of OME in combination with single risk factors and with increasing numbers of risk factors were investigated. An interaction with an additional risk factor was found only for gender and OME, with boys' spelling influenced negatively by a history of OME, OME in combination with preterm birth and low birthw eight also appears to put children at risk for later langauage and edu cational problems, Although a negative linear relation between the num ber of risk factors and later functioning was found, it is suggested t hat OME, even when combined with a number of other risk factors, produ ces only minor effects on later language, reading, and spelling.