Table 1.

Relation between childhood abdominal pain and parental health complaints and maternal neuroticism

Risk factor (age (years) of child at assessment)	No exposed	No (%) cases	Odds ratio (95% CI)*	Ir χ2 for trend; P value
Maternal neuroticism on Maudsley personality inventory (13)
0	1144	16 (1.4)	1.00	13.62; 0.0002
1	765	11 (1.4)	0.76 (0.37 to 1.12
2–3	1037	23 (2.2)	1.05 (0.49 to 2.24)
⩾4	511	21 (4.1)	2.61 (1.23 to 5.52)
Parental ailments (15)
0	1604	15 (0.9)	1.00	13.62; 0.0002
1	1055	25 (2.4)	2.37 (1.12 to 5.01)
2	500	16 (3.2)	3.01 (1.31 to 6.91)
3	204	7 (3.4)	2.57 (0.85 to 7.74)
	125	8 (6.4)	4.96 (1.73 to 14.17)
Mother’s perception of own health (15)
Excellent/good	2353	24 (1.4)	1.00	13.64; 0.0002
Average	920	27 (2.9)	1.39 (0.75 to 2.58)
Not very good/bad	171	1 (5.9)	4.54 (2.00 to 10.30)
Mother’s perception of father’s health (15)
Excellent/good	2453	37 (1.5)	1.00	6.13; 0.01
Average	723	22 (3.0)	1.69 (0.89 to 3.20)
Not very good/bad	204	7 (3.4)	2.06 (0.80 to 5.29)
Mother’s self reporting of “nerves” (15)
No	3059	54 (1.8)	1.00	6.13; 0.01
Yes	394	17 (4.3)	2.12 (1.05 to 4.31)
Mother reports “nerves” in father (15)
No	3193	64 (2.0)	1.00	0.46; 0.5
Yes	148	4 (2.7)	1.44 (0.43 to 4.79)
Reported continual or repeated colds in other family members (6)
No	2181	24 (1.1)	1.00	14.2; 0.0002
Yes	1427	48 (3.4)	2.48 (1.39 to 4.41)

Ir = likelihood ratio test.  

^*Odds ratios corrected for sex and father’s social class, weighted for sampling.