Association of Chronic Otitis Media with Sjogren’s Syndrome: A Case-Control Study

There is a paucity of large-scale population-based study whether patients with Sjögren’s syndrome are at higher risk of chronic otitis media. This study aimed to investigate the association of chronic otitis media with Sjögren’s syndrome by utilizing the representative dataset of the Taiwanese population. We identified 9473 patients with chronic otitis media as cases. We used propensity score matching to select 28,419 controls. We used multiple logistic regression analysis to examine the association of chronic otitis media with prior Sjögren’s syndrome after adjusting for age, sex, monthly income category, geographic location and urbanization level of the patient’s residence, allergic rhinitis, chronic rhinosinusitis and tonsillitis and adenoiditis. Chi-square tests showed a statistically significant difference in Sjögren’s syndrome between patients with chronic otitis media and controls (4.89% vs. 2.93%, p < 0.001). In addition, we found patients with chronic otitis media were more likely to have Sjögren’s syndrome (OR = 1.698, 95% CI = 1.509~1.910) relative to controls after adjusting for age, income, geographic location, residential urbanization level, allergic rhinitis, chronic rhinosinusitis and tonsillitis and adenoiditis. We also found that of the male patients, patients with chronic otitis media had a greater tendency to Sjögren’s syndrome than controls (adjusted OR = 1.982, 95% CI = 1.584~2.481). Similarly, a statistically significant association between Sjögren’s syndrome and chronic otitis media remains in female sampled patients (adjusted OR = 1.604, 95% CI = 1.396~1.842). We found that patients with Sjögren’s syndrome were associated with the occurrence of chronic otitis media. It may guide physicians as they counsel patients with Sjögren’s syndrome on the possibility of chronic otitis media occurrence.