The aim of this study is to examine the relationship between socioeconomic status and (1) receipt of paediatric otolaryngological surgery, and (2) inclusion of adjuvant procedures. Using data on myringotomies with insertion of tympanostomy tube and tonsillectomies for all children in Ontario from 1996 to 2000, and census data on socioeconomic status, the researchers examined the association between socioeconomic status and (1) the probability of surgery (myringotomy or tonsillectomy), and (2) the probability that surgery was accompanied by an adjuvant procedure.

Lower socioeconomic status was associated with increased likelihood that a child’s initial surgery was a tonsillectomy rather than a myringotomy (odds ratio per unit increase in the deprivation index =1.09, p=0.01, confidence interval [1.06, 1.11]), and with increased likelihood that those children having a myringotomy would undergo a tonsillectomy during the same hospitalization (odds ratio 1.14, p<0.0001, confidence interval [1.11, 1.16]). Children from neighbourhoods with larger immigrant populations were less likely to receive either procedure (odds ratios per 1% increase in the proportion of immigrants=0.97 (p<0.0001, confidence interval [0.96, 0.97]) for myringotomies and 0.97 (p<0.0001, confidence interval [0.97, 0.98]) for tonsillectomies.