Prospective epidemiological study of secretory otitis media in children not attending kindergarten. An incidence study.

To assess the incidence of secretory otitis media in children minded at home we examined 210 children not attending kindergarten or municipal day care. Of these children 117 were minded exclusively at home or in private day care with up to 2 children. Tympanometry was carried out 6 times at 2-week intervals. Secretory otitis media (SOM) of more than 3 months' duration was found in 17% of the one-year-olds and in 6% of the total series. In the age range 1-5 years the incidence was from 0.35 to 0.19/child/month, and the mean for the total group was 0.26/child/month.