Does Child Care in the First Year of Life Pose a Risk for Concurrent and Future Ear Infections?

ABSTRACT

Child care centre attendance is associated with an increased risk of concurrent ear infections, but what is less clear is whether there are any positive or negative long-term effects of early child care attendance on the incidence of ear infections in later childhood. This research assessed the impact of early child care attendance on concurrent and long-term risk of ear infections. Complete sets of relevant wave 1–5 data from the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children were available for 3513 children (1822 boys) who had a median age of 9 months (M = 8.7, SD = 2.6) at wave 1, 34 months (M = 33.8, SD = 2.9) at wave 2, 57 months (M = 57.5, SD = 2.8) at wave 3, 82 months (M = 81.8, SD = 3.5) at wave 4, and 107 months (M = 107.1, SD = 3.6) at wave 5. At waves 1 and 2, children who attended child care centres had a significantly increased risk of concurrent ear infections than children with exclusive parental care. The longitudinal analyses found no evidence of increased (or decreased) long-term risk of ear infections in subsequent waves associated with attending a child care centre in the first 12 months (or the first 30 months) of life. However, having ear infections at wave 1 was a significant risk factor for ear infections at subsequent waves. Future research is needed to design and investigate appropriate interventions to ameliorate these increased risks.

KEYWORDS:

• Child care
• ear infections
• otitis media
• infants

Acknowledgements

The Longitudinal Study of Australian Children is funded by the Commonwealth Department of Families, Housing Community Services and Indigenous Affairs. The authors wish to thank all the children and families for their generous support and participation in the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Dr. Brad M. Farrant holds a PhD in developmental psychology. His research focuses on the importance of early childhood development and how to connect this to strengths of Aboriginal people and culture. He is also interested in how broader ecological factors like biodiversity loss, population growth, peak water and climate change will interact to affect children's development now and in the future.

Dr Linda J. Harrison holds a PhD in developmental psychology and master's degrees in early childhood education and the biological sciences. Her research focuses on very young children's experiences in early education and care settings, and the processes and practices that underpin high-quality programmes.

Dr. Sarah Wise has a background in developmental psychology and holds a PhD in Psychology and Paediatrics. She has worked for social impact for more than 20 years and has held leadership positions in the government, university and community service sectors. She has carried out a large body of research related to children and families with vulnerabilities and has made significant contributions to complex policy evaluations, social reforms and programme design. She is currently working on projects around leadership and improvement of complex service systems and studying unborn children at risk of harm after birth and very young children in out-of-home care.

Grant Smith holds a Master of Psychology (Applied Developmental) and has worked for 10 years in policy- and practice-relevant research specialising in quantitative research methods. His interests lie in longitudinal modelling, childhood development (cognitive, social, and emotional), aetiology of disease, utilising linked administrative databases, management and epidemiology of type I diabetes, and translation of research into policy and practice.

Dr. Stephen R. Zubrick holds a PhD in psychology and a master's degree in speech pathology and audiology. His research interests include the study of the social determinants of health and mental health in children, studies of the genetic and environmental determinants of language development, and large-scale psychosocial survey work in non-Indigenous and Indigenous populations. Over the past 20 years, he has been instrumental in designing and implementing the leading Australian studies (national and state) of child and adolescent mental health. He is particularly interested in human capital and capability expansion in individuals and populations and the translation of research findings.

Additional information

Funding

BMF is supported by the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council [Project grant number 1098844]. SRZ is supported by a Centre of Excellence Grant from the Australian Research Council [grant number CE140100027].