Investigators: Chris Brennan-Jones, Deborah Lehmann, Francis Lannigan, Holly Richmond, June Doyle, Natasha Morrison, Peter Richmond, Rosemary Walley, Sharon Weeks, Val Swift, Victoria Stroud
External collaborators: George Sim (ENT Private Practice), Anton Hinton-Barye (ENT Private Practice)
Otitis media (OM, middle ear infections) and the consequent hearing loss are major concerns for Aboriginal people and OM can seriously impact on children’s learning potential which in turn will impact on life as an adult. While there are now more Aboriginal children living in Perth’s South Metropolitan region than in the Kimberley, rates of disease, predisposing risk factors and utilisation of health services in urban pre-school children are unknown. To assist in preventing the long-term consequences of early OM in urban Aboriginal children, and developing culturally appropriate services, in close collaboration with local organisations, we will follow Aboriginal children living in the South Metropolitan area of Perth from birth to age 12 months and find out how much disease there is and why some children are more likely to get OM than others.