title: Epidemiology of otitis media in children from developing countries: A systematic review.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  This systematic review examined the epidemiology of otitis media (OM) in children <6 years within 90 developing and newly industrialised countries.
  
  
  METHODS
  Literature searches (1992-2011), based on MEDLINE, EMBASE, WHO, Index Medicus, country-specific websites, conferences, and the reference lists of included studies, yielded 11,413 records; 59 of 344 studies analysed were included in this review.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The majority of the identified studies provided only a single timepoint for OM. In children <6 years of age, OM prevalence was found to be 9.2% in Nigeria, 10% in Egypt, 6.7% in China, 9.2% in India, 9.1% in Iran and 5.1-7.8% in Russia. Few studies examined the etiology of OM and the antibacterial resistance. The most common bacterial pathogens were S. pneumoniae, H. influenzae and S. aureus. A high resistance to penicillin was reported in Nigeria and Turkey.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Despite the variability between the identified studies, this review indicates that OM and its various sub-types remain a significant burden in different settings. However, the heterogeneity of studies and a general lack of reliable data made generalisation very difficult.
authors.affiliation: GSK Vaccines, Ciudad del Saber, Panama.
authors.forename: Rodrigo
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: DeAntonio
authors.affiliation: GSK Vaccines, Wavre, Belgium.
authors.forename: Juan-Pablo
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Yarzabal
authors.affiliation: GSK Vaccines, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: James Philip
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Cruz
authors.affiliation: GSK Vaccines, Wavre, Belgium.
authors.forename: Johannes E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Schmidt
authors.affiliation: School for Public Health and Primary Care (CAPHRI), Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands; Kleijnen Systematic Reviews Ltd, York, United Kingdom. Electronic address: jos@systematic-reviews.com.
authors.forename: Jos
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kleijnen
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003906:Developing Countries / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D010033:Otitis Media / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000382:microbiology; D015995:Prevalence
keywords: Children; Developing and newly industrialised countries; Epidemiology; Otitis media; Systematic review