The aims were to: (1) provide word recognition thresholds (WRTs) at 31, 43, and 61 months of age; (2) investigate developmental changes over time; (3) investigate the relationship between OME and WRT, and (4) investigate the relationship between WRT and hearing thresholds. Around 1000 children were tested longitudinally as part of the ALSPAC study, using an adaptive measure of word recognition ...

Objectives For earlier detection of infectious disease outbreaks, a digital syndromic surveillance system based on search queries or social media should be utilized. By using real-time data sources, a digital syndromic surveillance system can overcome the limitation of time-delay in traditional surveillance systems. Here, we introduce an approach to develop such a digital surveillance system. ...

We conducted a study of 80 patients to evaluate the accuracy of a commercially available acoustic reflectometer in identifying the presence or absence of otitis media with effusion (OME). This device assesses bilateral tympanic membrane mobility and, by inference, middle ear status. We found that it was most accurate in patients with normal and grossly fluid-filled ears. We recommend screening ...

Conclusions: Once a week middle ear inflation over a 4-week period was efficacious in the treatment of OME in the shortterm but it did not provide satisfactory long-term benefits. Autoinflation may avoid the need for drugs or surgery for middle ear effusion and it may be considered as an alternative to the other choices of treatment of OME. However, further efficacy studies investigating the id...

This statement has been approved by the Council on Child and Adolescent Health. PEDIATRICS (ISSN 0031 4005). Copyright © 1987 by the American Academy of Pediatrics. screening by pure-tone audiometry be used as the primary method of detection of hearing loss in school children; (4) the impedance bridge not be used as a replacement for audiometnic screening, because it will not detect sensory neu...