Figure 2.

Incidence of MED in the first 5 years of life (from a study performed in Oxford, 1993–1998). A group of children with normal birth histories were examined every month from birth with bilateral otoscopy and tympanometry to detect the occurrence of fluid in the middle ear (see ref. 47 for further details). The histogram bars show, for each year, the percentage of children who had fluid, in one or both ears, on less than (black bars) or more than (white bars) 50% of the examinations in that year. Most of the children who had high rates of MED in 1 year also had high rates in the other years. Overall, about 15% of the children in our sample had MED for more than half of the first 5 years of their lives (S. C. Hogan and D.R.M., unpublished data).