The impact of recurrent abdominal pain: predictors of outcome in a large population cohort.

AIM

Recurrent abdominal pain is one of the commonest complaints of childhood, affecting approximately 10% of children at any one time. This study aims to describe the outcome of recurrent abdominal pain amongst 6-year-old children, and to identify risk factors (in both the children and their parents), which predict these outcomes.

METHODS

7128 6-year-old children in the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) were followed up for 1 year. The principle outcomes were abdominal pain, number of days missed from school in the preceding year and psychiatric diagnoses.

RESULTS

Children with recurrent abdominal pain at age 6 years had higher rates of further abdominal pain [odds ratio 4.88 (95% CI: 4.01, 5.95)], school absence (10 or more days off school in a year) [OR 1.89 (1.53, 2.33)] and anxiety disorders [OR 2.36 (1.68, 3.32)] at age 7 years. Maternal anxiety was the most consistent predictor of subsequent adverse outcomes for these children.

CONCLUSION

Children with recurrent abdominal pain are at significant and continuing risk of adverse functioning. It is important for clinicians to take a whole family perspective, and particularly to consider parental anxiety, when a child with recurrent abdominal pain presents to them.