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• Although the hospitalisation rate for suppurative and unspecified otitis media forchildren aged four to 14 years is lower than the hospitalisation rate for childrenaged under three years, Indigenous children aged between four and 14 years stillhad a higher hospitalisation rate than non-Indigenous children aged between fourand 14 years (1.9 per 1000 compared with 1.1 per 1000).• Indigenous children aged between four and 14 years had a higher hospitalisationrate for diseases of the middle ear and mastoid than non-Indigenous children(7.0 per 1000 compared with 5.5 per 1000).Data for Queensland, WA, SA and the NT show that from 2001-02 to 2004-05:• Hospitalisation rates for middle ear and mastoid diseases decreased forIndigenous children aged 0–3 years (from 12.9 per 1000 to 9.5 per 1000) andnon-Indigenous children aged 0–3 years (16.2 per 1000 to 15.3 per 1000)(tables 5A.4.6 to 5A.4.9).• The hospitalisation rate for suppurative and unspecified otitis media decreasedfor Indigenous children under the age of three years from 7.0 per 1000 in2001-02 to 5.7 per 1000 in 2004-05 (tables 5A.4.6 to 5A.4.9).5.5 Children with tooth decayBox 5.5.1Key messages• Data on tooth decay were available only for NSW, SA and the NT. For thesejurisdictions:– Indigenous children had higher numbers of both infant and adult teeth with decaythan non-Indigenous children, in both metropolitan and rural areas (table 5.5.1)– fewer Indigenous children than non-Indigenous children had decay-free infantand adult teeth across all age groups and in both metropolitan and rural areas(table 5.5.2).• National data on dental hospitalisation rates and procedure rates showed:– Indigenous children aged less than five years had the highest dentalhospitalisation rate of any age group, almost one and a half times the rate fornon-Indigenous children of that age group (table 5A.5.8)– extraction rates were greater for Indigenous children than for non-Indigenouschildren. The rate of extraction procedures for Indigenous boys was 1.3 times ashigh as the rate for non-Indigenous boys (figure 5.5.4).In the 2005 Report, data on tooth decay among Indigenous children were presentedunder the indicator ‘Primary school children with dental caries’, which was part ofEARLY CHILDDEVELOPMENT ANDGROWTH5.33