Table 4. Eczema prevalence and/or severity are associated with recurrent ear infections, comorbid visual and dental problems.
| Comorbidity | No eczema | Eczema | P-value# | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Freq | Percent (95% CI) | Freq | Percent (95% CI) | ||
| Recurrent ear infections within the past 12 months | |||||
| Recurrent ear infections | 3849 | 6.0 (5.5, 6.5) | 1108 | 10.4 (9.3, 11.6) | < 0.0001 |
| Recurrent ear infection severity | |||||
| Mild | 1333 | 37.8 (33.8, 41.8) | 364 | 33.8 (27.8, 39.7) | 0.24 |
| Moderate | 1728 | 43.3 (39.4, 47.2) | 478 | 42.6 (37.0, 48.3) | |
| Severe | 770 | 18.6 (16.0, 21.2) | 259 | 23.1 (18.0, 28.2) | |
| Visual problems | |||||
| Ever visual problems | 1000 | 1.4 (1.2, 1.6) | 214 | 2.6 (1.5, 3.7) | 0.004 |
| Visual problems within the past 12 months | 746 | 1.0 (0.9, 1.2) | 171 | 2.2 (1.2, 3.2) | 0.002 |
| Visual problem severity | |||||
| Mild | 332 | 41.6 (34.5, 48.6) | 64 | 39.2 (13.2, 65.2) | 0.87 |
| Moderate | 258 | 36.8 (29.3, 44.3) | 65 | 41.7 (19.7, 63.5) | |
| Severe | 149 | 20.8 (15.2, 26.5) | 39 | 17.3 (6.2, 28.3) | |
| Dental problems within the past 12 months | |||||
| Toothache | 5876 | 10.3 (9.7, 10.9) | 1233 | 13.7 (12.1, 15.4) | < 0.0001 |
| Broken teeth | 1900 | 3.8 (3.3, 4.2) | 353 | 5.5 (4.0, 6.9) | 0.01 |
| Bleeding gums | 1613 | 2.9 (2.5, 3.2) | 384 | 5.0 (3.7, 6.2) | < 0.0001 |
| Tooth decay | 10303 | 21.4 (20.5, 22.4) | 1610 | 22.4 (20.0, 24.9) | 0.47 |
| Comorbidity | Mild or moderate eczema | Severe eczema | P-value# | ||
| Freq | Percent (95% CI) | Freq | Percent (95% CI) | ||
| Recurrent ear infections within the past 12 months | |||||
| Recurrent ear infections | 1029 | 10.3 (9.1, 11.5) | 89 | 13.2 (7.5, 18.8) | 0.29 |
| Recurrent ear infection severity | |||||
| Mild | 351 | 34.3 (28.4, 40.3) | 15 | 30.8 (2.8, 58.7) | 0.92 |
| Moderate | 444 | 42.5 (36.7, 48.3) | 42 | 42.3 (21.4, 63.2) | |
| Severe | 229 | 22.8 (17.5, 28.1) | 32 | 26.9 (9.9, 44.0) | |
| Visual problems | |||||
| Ever visual problems | 191 | 2.6 (1.5, 3.7) | 24 | 4.0 (0.7, 7.3) | 0.36 |
| Visual problems within the past 12 months | 149 | 2.1 (1.1, 3.2) | 22 | 4.0 (0.7, 7.2) | 0.19 |
| Visual problem severity | |||||
| Mild | 57 | 38.3 (30.4, 46.1) | 6 | 27.3 (7.1, 47.5) | 0.08 |
| Moderate | 59 | 39.6 (31.7, 47.5) | 7 | 31.8 (10.7, 53.0) | |
| Severe | 30 | 20.1 (13.6, 26.6) | 9 | 40.9 (18.6, 63.2) | |
| Dental problems within the past 12 months | |||||
| Toothache | 1138 | 13.2 (11.6, 14.9) | 104 | 20.9 (13.3, 28.6) | 0.02 |
| Broken teeth | 314 | 5.1 (3.6, 6.6) | 39 | 10.3 (4.0, 16.5) | 0.04 |
| Bleeding gums | 340 | 4.3 (3.2, 5.5) | 45 | 12.6 (5.4, 19.8) | 0.0007 |
| Tooth decay | 1490 | 21.8 (19.3, 24.3) | 127 | 32.6 (22.5, 42.7) | 0.02 |
Rao-Scott chi-square
Parental refusal to answer a particular question or response of “don't know” occurred for the questions pertaining to ever eczema in 79 (0.1%), eczema severity in 22 (0.2%), recurrent ear infections in 49 (0.1%), severity of recurrent ear infections in 25 (0.3%), ever visual problems in 100 (0.1%), current visual problems in 7 (0.005%), severity of visual problems in 10 (1.0%), toothache in 100 (0.1%), broken teeth in 33 (0.1%), bleeding gums in 89 (0.1%) and tooth decay in 213 (0.4%), respectively.
Note: The proportional odds assumption was not met (Score test, P<0.01). Therefore, ordinal logistic regression was not used. Rather, all analyses of severity used binary logistic regression on dichotomized severe vs. mild-moderate disease. However, similar results were obtained when severity was dichotomized moderate-severe vs. mild.