Incidence of acute otitis media in infants in a general practice.

A 12-month study of the incidence of acute otitis media in children under three years of age in an urban practice of 10 000 patients showed that acute otitis media accounted for one in 10 of all episodes of illness presented. In contrast to findings in Scandinavia and the USA the incidence of acute otitis media in the first year of life (11.5%) was lower than in the second year (28.6%). The study included a number of children in their third year and the incidence in this group was higher still (30.8%).The problems of defining acceptable diagnostic criteria for acute otitis media, and the relation of these diagnostic criteria to the differences in our results compared with previous studies are discussed.