Habitual use of push and pull plastic bottle caps is more prevalent among children with recurrent acute otitis media.

The use of a pacifier has been reported to be a causative factor of recurrent acute otitis media (RAOM) because the negative pressure which is generated during sucking may cause a negative intra-tympanic pressure and favour the reflux of nasopharyngeal secretions into the Eustachian tube. Push and pull (P&P) plastic bottle caps, recently marketed in Italy, might also induce negative nasopharyngeal pressure. This study was aimed to investigate if there is a difference in the prevalence of habitual use of P&P plastic bottle caps among children with a positive history of RAOM and healthy controls. A telephonic interview was performed in order to retrospectively evaluate the prevalence of habitual use of P&P plastic bottle cap among children with a history of RAOM and healthy controls, comparable to the former for environmental risk factors for RAOM. Data were obtained from 57 Caucasian patients (males=36/57; 63.2%) with a median age of 59 (range=21-90) months, including 28 children with a history of RAOM and 29 healthy controls. Habitual use of P&P plastic bottle cap was significantly (p=0.047) more frequent in children with a history of RAOM (14/28; 50.0%) than in control group (7/29; 24.2%). Multivariate logistic regression analysis adjusted for age confirmed a significant association (p<0.01; Pseudo R(2)=0.2) between the use of P&P plastic bottle cap and a positive history of RAOM (adjusted OR=4.0; range=1.1-15.0). Our preliminary data show a significantly increased prevalence of P&P plastic cap bottle habitual users among children with a history or RAOM and support the need for larger studies to confirm the role of using P&P bottles as risk factor of RAOM and to identify the age groups at higher risk. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Citation

Sara Torretta, Paola Marchisio, Maurizio Cappadona, Elena Baggi, Lorenzo Pignataro. Habitual use of push and pull plastic bottle caps is more prevalent among children with recurrent acute otitis media. International journal of pediatric otorhinolaryngology. 2013 Jul;77(7):1179-82

PMID: 23726954

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