Obesity 'link' to ear condition
Updated on 17 April 2007
A condition that causes fluid build-up in the middle ear may be associated with childhood obesity, researchers claim.
Doctors in South Korea looked at 155 children aged two to seven who received treatment for otitis media with effusion (OME).
They were compared with 118 children who had never suffered the ear condition.
Those in the OME group had a higher body mass index (BMI), on average, and higher cholesterol levels. BMI is a measurement that relates height and weight and is used as a marker of obesity.
In adults, people with a BMI of 30 or above are classified as obese, and those with readings of between 25 and 30 as overweight.
Children with BMIs in the top 5% compared with others of the same age and sex are also described as obese. The Korean researchers found that the children with OME had an average BMI of 22, compared with 16.3 for the healthy children.
Of the OME group, 65 children (41.9%) had BMIs which met the criteria for childhood obesity.
The findings were reported in the journal Archives of Otolaryngology - Head & Neck Surgery.
The scientists, led by Dr Jong Bin Kim, from Kyung Hee University in Seoul, suspected that obesity raised the risk of OME, rather than the other way round.
They did not suggest a reason for the link, but wrote: "In comparing children with and without OME, we found that childhood obesity was significantly higher in children with OME. This finding suggests that childhood obesity could have an effect on the development of OME."
These news feeds are provided by an independent third party and Channel 4 is not responsible or liable to you for the same.
