title: Frequent ear infections in association with child-care characteristics, based on the 1988 Child Health Supplement to the National Health Interview Survey.
abstract: Using the 1988 Child Health Supplement to the National Health Interview Survey, we analysed the association between child-care characteristics and frequent ear infections among children under 6 years attending child care. We observed strong associations for 1- to 2-year-old children for variables involving exposure to many different children, including number of children in the main setting and one or more changes in child-care arrangement in the past year. No significant effects were observed for the children under 1 year, but sample sizes were small. Likewise, no strong associations were observed for the 3- to 5-year-old children, but they may have outgrown the detrimental effects of repeated respiratory tract infections.
authors.affiliation: Epidemiology, Statistics and Data System Branch, National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD), National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892-7180, USA.
authors.forename: M E
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Hildesheim
authors.forename: H J
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Hoffman
authors.forename: M D
authors.initials: MD
authors.lastname: Overpeck
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D002654:Child Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D002656:Child Day Care Centers; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D010033:Otitis Media / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology; D018570:Risk Assessment