Bering Strait region children in households without running water are much more likely to get middle-ear infections, a newly published study confirmed. (via AlaskaBeacon)
Plastic buckets used for human waste, known as “honeybuckets,” await pickup outside a home in Teller on Sept. 2, 2021. Teller is one of the Bering Strait villages lacking piped water service or flush toilets; residents use plastic-bag-lined buckets for toilets, with the contents collected for disposal by a city crew. Children in homes without running water are at much higher risks of developing middle-ear infections, research shows.
The study, published in the journal Ear and Hearing, is part of a Norton Sound Health Corp.-supported program to address high rates of ear infections and the hearing loss that can result from them. Ultimately, the research should help health providers improve hearing screenings for children in the region, said co-author Samantha Kleindienst Robler, an audiologist at Norton Sound Health Corp. who is also an assistant professor at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.
Though the study found a strong link between lack of running water and ear infections, that link did not extend to children’s hearing loss. Nor did the study find a link between other known risk factors, housing crowding and indoor smoke. Ear infections do not always cause hearing loss, Kleindienst Robler said, but the results may also be skewed by some limitations in the methods used in the study. The measure used in the hearing screenings, an otoacoustic emission or OAE, is an important tool, she said, “but unfortunately is not the most sensitive at detecting the mild hearing loss that is most commonly found with middle ear infections.
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