text_1: New studies say antibiotics are good for infants with confirmed ear infections
text_2: Two studies published in the New England Journal of Medicine show slight decrease in recurrence of ear infections in children under 2 if antibiotics are given. The story quotes one expert saying the studies are “substantial” but also quotes a second expert who says the results are a “dubious way to say that everybody needs treatment.” The story could have explored the shared decision-making encounter that parents could have with pediatricians based on this new evidence. By comparison, CNN’s story did a much better job helping parents with this angle. Otitis media is the most common illness in children under 3 in the US. (75 percent of all children experience once by age 3.) Parents suffer, children suffer, and money is spent. If the treatment is only marginally effective, it would save parents and society money and time to avoid treatment. At the same time, the problem of antibotic resistance is a huge financial and medical problem in the US. In 2004, the American Academy of Pediatrics directly spoke to antibiotic resistance as a threat, and blamed frequent use in otitis media for some of that resistance.www.aap.org/sections/media/earinfection.htm As stated above, we wish the story could have helped readers think more deeply about how/whether these data impact the decision-making process.