Association between asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and chronic otitis media

We hypothesized that asthma/chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) might increase the risk of chronic otitis media (COM), as asthma or COPD affects other diseases. The aim of this research was to investigate whether the incidence of COM is affected by a diagnosis of asthma or COPD in patients compared to matched controls from the national health screening cohort. A COM group (n = 11,587) and a control group that was 1:4 matched for age, sex, income, and residence area (n = 46,348) were selected. The control group included participants who never received treatment for COM from Korean National Health Insurance Service-Health Screening Cohort from 2002 to 2015. The crude and adjusted odds ratios (ORs) of previous asthma/COPD before the index date for COM were analyzed using conditional logistic regression. The analyses were stratified by age, sex, income, and region of residence. The period prevalence of asthma (17.5% vs. 14.3%, p < 0.001) and COPD (6.6% vs. 5.0%, p < 0.001) were significantly higher in the COM group than in the control group. In addition, the odds of asthma and COPD were significantly higher in the COM group than in the control group. Both asthma (adjusted OR 1.23, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.16–1.31, p < 0.001) and COPD (adjusted OR 1.23, 95% CI 1.13–1.35, p < 0.001) increased the ORs for COM. This positive association between asthma/COPD and COM indicates that asthma/COPD might increase the incidence of COM.