Key points
- Meningitis is a life-threatening infection which may develop as a
complication to acute otitis media
- The most common sequela after meningitis is hearing loss, but risk
factors for hearing loss have not been studied to any great extent.
- When all cases of meningitis (n=187) occurring in a Swedish county
during 18 years (2000-2017) were investigated, 71 cases of hearing
loss were identified, however 68 of the patients had not done a
hearing test after recovery.
- Hearing loss was significantly more common in adults, occurring in
45% in patients aged 21-65 years and in 48% in patients over the age
of 65 when assuming that those who had not done a hearing test had
normal hearing. This corresponded to ORs of 8.0 and 9.8 compared to
children.
- Concurrent acute otitis media and pneumococcal infection increased the
odds of hearing loss by 2.1 and 3.6, respectively.