Health
Ear infections in young children could lead to delayed speech for them, study finds
Chronic ear infections could delay a child’s language development, new research suggests.
University of Florida researchers launched a study about how the common childhood infection could impact speech.
Early ear infections (otitis media) have the potential to impair hearing due to fluid buildup behind the eardrum, according to the study, which was published in the International Journal of Pediatric Otorhinolaryngology in November 2023.
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Researchers investigated the auditory processing and language development of 117 kids between 5 and 10 years of age, including those with and without a history of chronic ear infections.
Children who experienced several ear infections before turning 3 had a smaller vocabulary and found it difficult to match similar-sounding words.
Early ear infections could lead to a later delay in speech, according to a study from the University of Florida. (iStock)
These children also had a hard time detecting changes in sound, which could signify a problem in the brain’s auditory processing center.
Study co-author and UF professor Susan Nittrouer, PhD, discussed the findings in a statement to Fox News Digital.
“For most children, language development appears to unfold so effortlessly that it is easy for us to lose sight of what a remarkable feat this is,” she said.
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“And ear infections are so common among infants and toddlers that it is easy to view them as completely benign,” she added.
The study uncovered “two somewhat novel findings,” Nittrouer noted.
It’s important for guardians to pay attention to their children’s ear infection history, said the study’s lead researcher (not pictured). (iStock)
The first finding is the association of ear infections with poorer abilities to recognize patterns in the acoustic signals present in speech.
“The central auditory pathways develop after birth,” the researcher said.
“If enough auditory input is not available to the child – which happens with temporary periods of hearing loss due to ear infections – that development of auditory pathways is delayed and these listening abilities do not develop properly.”
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The second finding implied that this poor recognition of acoustic patterns impairs the ability of children to identify specific speech sounds, including elements like syllables.
“As they get older, the language they encounter, especially in school, becomes more complex and more dependent on that level of language structure.”
“This is a critical finding,” Nittrouer said. “During early periods of language acquisition, children do not have or need keen sensitivity to phonological structure – individual speech sounds.”
She added, “But as they get older, the language they encounter, especially in school, becomes more complex and more dependent on that level of language structure and the child’s ability to accurately and quickly recognize the individual speech sounds in words.”
One of the study’s “critical findings” was that ear infections can cause poor identification of speech sounds, the lead researcher said. (iStock)
This means that children who are delayed and challenged in their language development will “experience stronger challenges” as they get older, Nittrouer said.
“Contrary to the idea that the child will ‘get over’ or ‘outgrow’ the effects of early [ear infections], these effects may actually intensify,” she said.
“We must take every ear infection seriously.”
Nittrouer encouraged parents and caregivers to monitor children for “language-learning, academic and attentional difficulties,” including reading disabilities, as they age.
“It also means that we must take every ear infection seriously,” she added.
Other early health histories can delay a child’s speech as well, Nittrouer said — which means kids should be monitored for language development “well past the early school years.”
She also said that “the problems arising from such conditions may only present themselves as the language demands of school increase.”
Ear infections can delay the development of auditory pathways in early childhood, the study found. (iStock)
Cedars Sinai Guerin Children’s pediatric otolaryngologist Abhita Reddy, M.D., who was not involved in the study, told Fox News Digital she feels that in her view, the research is “under-powered.”
“The experiment had very few subjects studied and yet drew a broad conclusion from them,” the Los Angeles-based doctor said via email. “When a study has such few subjects in their experiment, often the conclusions can be easily skewed by confounding variables.”
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Reddy also pointed out that the chosen population of patients studied was “concerning,” as the study looked at children who reportedly did not have many ear infections as defined by parents.
“[This] can introduce a lot of concern regarding the type of otitis media the child had, as there are two types – acute otitis media and chronic otitis media with effusion – that can have very different effects on patients’ language development,” she said.
The effects of early ear infections could “intensify” as a child grows up, according to the researchers’ findings. (iStock)
The definition of patients who had experienced ear infections was “even more concerning,” Reddy said, since the authors apparently studied patients who had never received ear tubes.
“They did not mention whether the patient had ear tubes during the time of [the] experiment, how many sets they had or what the indications for their ear tubes were,” she said.
The specialist said that in her opinion, parents shouldn’t draw conclusions from this study and she does not believe the research will impact the future of ENT care.
“We know that recurrent acute otitis media in certain patients can be caused by eustachian tube dysfunction (a tube in our bodies that connects the middle ear space to the back of the nose) … [which], if not treated early, can lead to lifelong issues with hearing in the form of conductive hearing loss (ability for sound to transmit to the hearing nerve),” Reddy added.
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A new report by the American Heart Association (AHA) included some troubling predictions for the future of women’s health.
The forecast, published in the journal Circulation on Wednesday, projected increases in various comorbidities in American females by 2050.
More than 59% of women were predicted to have high blood pressure, up from less than 49% currently.
The review also projected that more than 25% of women will have diabetes, compared to about 15% today, and more than 61% will have obesity, compared to 44% currently.
As a result of these risk factors, the prevalence of cardiovascular disease and stroke is expected to rise to 14.4% from 10.7%.
The prevalence of cardiovascular disease and stroke in women is expected to rise to 14.4% from 10.7% by 2050. (iStock)
Not all trends were negative, as unhealthy cholesterol prevalence is expected to drop to about 22% from more than 42% today, the report stated.
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Dr. Elizabeth Klodas, a cardiologist and founder of Step One Foods in Minnesota, commented on these “jarring findings.”
“The fact that on our current trajectory, cardiometabolic disease is projected to explode in women within one generation should be a huge wake-up call,” she told Fox News Digital.
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“Hypertension, diabetes, obesity — these are all major risk factors for heart disease, and we are already seeing what those risks are driving. Heart disease is the No. 1 killer of women, eclipsing all other causes of death, including breast cancer.”
Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death for women in the U.S. and around the world. (iStock)
Klodas warned that heart disease starts early, progresses “stealthily,” and can present “out of the blue in devastating ways.”
The AHA published another study on Thursday revealing one million hospitalizations, showing that heart attack deaths are climbing among adults below the age of 55.
The more alarming finding, according to Klodas, is that young women were found more likely to die after their first heart attack than men of the same age.
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“This is all especially tragic since heart disease is almost entirely preventable,” she said. “The earlier you start, the better.”
Children can show early evidence of plaque deposition in their arteries, which can be reversed through lifestyle changes if “undertaken early enough and aggressively enough,” according to the expert.
Moving more is one part of protecting a healthy heart, according to experts. (iStock)
Klodas suggested that rising heart conditions are associated with traditional risk factors, like smoking, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, obesity and a sedentary lifestyle.
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Doctors are also seeing higher rates of preeclampsia, or high blood pressure during pregnancy, as well as gestational diabetes. Klodas noted that these are sex-specific risk factors that don’t typically contribute to complications until after menopause.
The best way to protect a healthy heart is to “do the basics,” Klodas recommended, including the following lifestyle habits.
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Klodas especially emphasized making improvements to diet, as the food people eat affects “every single risk factor that the AHA’s report highlights.”
“High blood pressure, high blood sugar, high cholesterol, excess weight – these are all conditions that are driven in part or in whole by food,” she said. “We eat multiple times every single day, which means what we eat has profound cumulative effects over time.”
“Even a small improvement in dietary intake, when maintained, can have a massive positive impact on health,” a doctor said. (iStock)
“Even a small improvement in dietary intake, when maintained, can have a massive positive impact on health.”
The doctor also recommends changing out a few snacks per day for healthier choices, which has been proven to “yield medication-level cholesterol reductions” in a month.
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“Keep up that small change and, over the course of a year, you could also lose 20 pounds and reduce your sodium intake enough to avoid blood pressure-lowering medications,” Klodas added.
“Women should not view the AHA report as inevitable. We have power over our health destinies. We just need to use it.”
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Nearsightedness (myopia) is skyrocketing globally, with nearly half of the world’s population expected to be myopic by 2050, according to the World Health Organization.
Heavy use of smartphones and other devices is associated with an 80% higher risk of myopia when combined with excessive computer use, but a new study suggests that dim indoor lighting could also be a factor.
For years, scientists have been puzzled by the different ways myopia is triggered. In lab settings, it can be induced by blurring vision or using different lenses. Conversely, it can be slowed by something as simple as spending time outdoors, research suggests.
Nearsightedness occurs when the eyeball grows too long from front to back, according to the American Optometric Association (AOA). This physical elongation causes light to focus in front of the retina rather than directly on it, making distant objects appear blurry.
The study suggests that myopia isn’t caused by the digital devices themselves, but by the low-light environments where they are typically used. (iStock)
Researchers at the State University of New York (SUNY) College of Optometry identified a potential specific trigger for this growth. When someone looks at a phone or a book up close, the pupil naturally constricts.
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“In bright outdoor light, the pupil constricts to protect the eye while still allowing ample light to reach the retina,” Urusha Maharjan, a SUNY Optometry doctoral student who conducted the study, said in a press release.
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“When people focus on close objects indoors, such as phones, tablets or books, the pupil can also constrict — not because of brightness, but to sharpen the image,” she went on. “In dim lighting, this combination may significantly reduce retinal illumination.”
High-intensity natural light prevents myopia because it provides enough retinal stimulation to override the “stop growing” signal, even when pupils are constricted. (iStock)
The hypothesis suggests that when the retina is deprived of light during extended close-up work, it sends a signal for the eye to grow.
In a dim environment, the narrowed pupil allows so little light through that the retinal activity isn’t strong enough to signal the eye to stop growing, the researchers found.
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In contrast, being outdoors provides light levels much brighter than indoors. This ensures that even when the pupil narrows to focus on a nearby object, the retina still receives a strong signal, maintaining healthy eye development.
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The team noted some limitations of the study, including the small subject group and the inability to directly measure internal lens changes, as the bright backgrounds used to mimic the outdoors made pupils too small for standard equipment.
Researchers believe that increasing indoor brightness during close-up work could be a simple, testable way to slow the global nearsightedness epidemic. (iStock)
“This is not a final answer,” Jose-Manuel Alonso, MD, PhD, SUNY distinguished professor and senior author of the study, said in the release.
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“But the study offers a testable hypothesis that reframes how visual habits, lighting and eye focusing interact.”
The study was published in the journal Cell Reports.
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