Otitis media in Inuit children in the Eastern Canadian Arctic--an overview--1968 to date.

Clinical observations made on the Inuit in the Eastern Canadian Arctic during the past three decades support that the current high prevalence of chronic otitis media among their children is a relatively new phenomenon. It is a social/economic disease related to their urbanization that occurred following World War II when the vast majority of the Inuit abandoned their isolated nomadic way of life and moved into permanent settlements. The disease, in a great many, runs a natural course with spontaneous healing. There is evidence that as the new millennium approaches the prevalence of the disease among the children is decreasing.