Is a positive family history predictive for recurrent acute otitis media in children? An evidence-based case report.

In this evidence-based case report, we studied the clinical question: Is a positive family history of acute otitis media (AOM) predictive for recurrent acute otitis media (rAOM) in children between zero and two years of age? The search yielded 3178 articles, of which only two were relevant and had a high validity regarding our clinical question. Neither of these two studies provided the final answer to our clinical question because they did not report stratified absolute risks for a positive family history. Fortunately, we were able to study the absolute risks in one of the two studies. The absolute risk of rAOM without distinguishing family history was 33 percent; the risk was 27 percent for children without a family history and 45 percent for children with a positive family history. Family history increases the absolute risk, but not in a way that it will help to predict rAOM accurately. C