Otitis (GSK)

The AOM is one of the most common childhood diseases. Most of 25% of children develop AOM due to pneumococcus during the first two years of life. AOM is the most frequent bacteria infection in the childhood and the first reason of prescription of drug from pediatricians. 
The primary end-point of this study is to estimate the AOM incidence diagnosed by pediatrician and reported in the medical archive of children between the ages of 0 and 5 years, in several European countries. The secondary end-points are necessary to understand in detail the incidence of AOM (estimate among assisted subjects the incidence of AOM based on different levels of assessment and assess the incidence of suspected AOM, evaluate the current episodes and describe the severity of AOM) and to assess the clinical and economical impact that this disease has. 

It was performed an epidemiological cohort study, partly retrospective (the study is composed by two parts one retrospective and the other one prospective), international, multicenter and observational. The study was conducted among 100-150 clinical center/ pediatric surgeries (1250 children) in different European countries (French, German; Italy, Spain, UK and Sweden). The inclusion criteria were: age between 0-5 years, no symptoms of OMA or infection of the upper respiratory tract, as long as they are registered with the primary health service of several European countries.