ESTIMATION OF OTITIS-MEDIA IN ANCIENT POPULATIONS - A STUDY OF PAST AND PRESENT GREENLANDIC INUIT

Examination of disease patterns in the past has often been difficult d ue to lack of morphological evidence. This study presents a new unbias ed method for estimation of occurrence of infectious middle ear diseas e (IMED) in childhood. The method is based on the relation between IME D in childhood and small or asymmetric pneumatized cell areas in the t emporal bones as seen on standardised X-rays. A polychotomous logistic regression model was applied on 434 pneumatized cell areas in tempora l bones from 34 adult living Greenlandic Inuit, 56 adult crania from t he 18th to the 19th century A.D. and 127 adult Inuit crania from the p re-European colonization period (before A.D. 1721) of Greenland. The o ccurrence of IMED as designated by the model was eight out of 34 (23.5 per cent) in living Inuit, 10 out of 56 (17.9 per cent) in crania fro m the 18th to 19th century and six out of 127 (4.7 per cent) in crania from the pre-colonization period. These frequencies differed signific antly (p<0.002). The mean area size also differed significantly, thus indicating a change in occurrence of IMED and a decrease in area sizes from past to present in Greenland.