Table 3.
Relation between childhood abdominal pain and adult psychiatric disorder and physical symptoms at age 36 years
| Outcome | No of children | No (%) with abdominal pain | Odds ratio (95% CI) * |
|---|---|---|---|
| Persistent abdominal pain | |||
| No | 2383 | 45 (1.9) | 1.30 (0.50 to 3.38) |
| Yes | 226 | 7 (3.1) | 1.03 (0.39 to 2.73)† |
| Persistent headache | |||
| No | 2045 | 38 (1.9) | 1.51 (0.73 to 3.13) |
| Yes | 563 | 14 (2.5) | 1.20 (0.57 to 2.56)† |
| Index of definition on present state examination | |||
| 1 | 1239 | 13 (1.1) | 2.72 (1.65 to 4.49)‡ |
| 2 | 811 | 19 (2.3) | |
| 3 | 225 | 9 (4.0) | |
| 4 | 158 | 5 (3.2) | |
| 5 | 129 | 1 (0.8) | |
| 6 | 24 | 4 (16.7) | |
| 7 | 6 | 1 (16.7) | |
| No of common somatic symptoms | |||
| 0 | 1312 | 20 (1.5) | 1.74 (1.04 to 2.92)‡ |
| 1 | 786 | 16 (2.0) | 1.39 (0.83 to 2.36)†‡ |
| 2 | 345 | 9 (2.6) | |
| 3 | 130 | 5 (3.9) | |
| 4 | 30 | 1 (3.3) | |
| 5 | 7 | 1 (14.3) |
*
Derived by logistic regression unless marked otherwise.
†
Corrected for psychiatric disorder at age 36 (see text).
‡
Ordinal regression, corrected for sex, father’s social class, marital status at age 36, and educational status. Note that ordinal regression derives single odds ratio describing increased risk of having outcome in abdominal pain group compared with “no pain” group, independent of level of severity of outcome.