correlation between tympanometry pattern of infants with complaints of ear pulling: a case-control study

Background: one of the most common concerns expressed by parents is the act of their infants pulling on their ears, which they often associate with otitis media. objectives: the present study aimed to assess the patterns of tympanometry in infants presenting with complaints of ear pulling and to evaluate potential associations with demographic and clinical factors. methods: a case-control study was conducted involving 88 infants under 12 months old (48 males, 40 females). the case group included infants with ear-pulling complaints (n = 44), and the control group comprised infants without ear-pulling (n = 44). tympanometry was performed on all participants. results: out of the 88 participants included in the study, 48 were male and 40 were female. the tympanogram patterns for the right ear were as follows: fifty-three individuals (60.2%) had an a-type pattern, 20 individuals (22.7%) had a b-type pattern, and 15 individuals (17%) had a c-type pattern. for the left ear, the tympanogram patterns were as follows: forty-six individuals (52.3%) had an a-type pattern, 26 individuals (29.5%) had a b-type pattern, and 16 individuals (18.2%) had a c-type pattern. statistical analysis was conducted using spss software version 22. tests included the mann-whitney test, shapiro-wilk test, descriptive statistics, chi-square test, and independent t-tests. conclusions: based on the findings of this study, no significant association was observed between a history of recent respiratory tract infection, gender, age, and the tympanogram patterns in the two groups.