Examination of disease patterns in the past has often been difficult due to lack of morphological evidence. This study presents a new unbiased method estimation of occurences of infectioous middle ear disease (IMED) in childhood. The method is based on the relation between IMED in childhood and small or asymmetric pneumatized cell areas in the temporal bones as seen on standrdised X-rays.

A Polychotomous logitic regression mofel was applied on 434 pneumatized cell areas in temporal bones from 34 adult living Greenlandic Inuit, 56 adult crania from the 18th to the 19th century A. D. and 127 adult inuit crania from the Pre-European colonization period (before A. D. 1721) of Greenland. The occurence of IMED as designated by the model was eight out of 34 (23.5 per cent) in living Inuit, 10 out of 56 (17.9 per cent) in crania form the 18th to 19th century and six out of 127 (4.7 per cent) in crania form the pre/colonization period. These frequencies differed significantly (p<0.002). The mean area size also differed significantly, thus indicating a change in occurence of IMED and a decrease in area sizes from past to presentin Greenland.