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. 2022 Aug 28;19(17):10721.
doi: 10.3390/ijerph191710721.

A Preliminary Study on Acute Otitis Media in Spanish Children with Late Dinner Habits

Ruth Díez  1   2 , Sergio Verd  3   4 , Jaume Ponce-Taylor  5 , Antonio Gutiérrez  6   7 , María Llull  8 , María-Isabel Martin-Delgado  4   9 , Olga Cadevall  2 , Jan Ramakers  1   4
Affiliations

A Preliminary Study on Acute Otitis Media in Spanish Children with Late Dinner Habits

Ruth Díez et al. Int J Environ Res Public Health. .

Abstract

The timing of caloric intake plays an important role in the long-term process that leads to communicable diseases. The primary objective of this study was to analyse whether children who ate dinner early were at lower risks of acute respiratory infections than children who ate dinner late during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted from July to December 2020 on children attending Majorcan emergency services. Our survey on dinner time habits was carried out by using self-administered questionnaires.

Results: A total of 669 children were included in this study. The median dinner time was 8:30 pm. Late dinner eaters accounted for a higher proportion of acute otitis media (7% vs. 3%; p = 0.028) than early dinner eaters. Other infectious diseases were not associated with dinner time habits.

Conclusions: We make a preliminary estimate of the link between late dinner habits and acute otitis media in children. However, no conclusions about causality can be established due to the observational design of the study, and further research is needed in order to confirm the different issues raised by our initial exploration of an emerging research area.

Keywords: Mediterranean diet; chronotype; circadian clock; common cold; inflammatory disease; late dinner; otitis media; oxidative stress.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Dinner time.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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