Introduction:

Coexistence of functional gastrointestinal disorders (FGID) in infants and preschool children has been described, but there is little literature on the main types of FGID coexistence or their characteristics.

Objective:

This study describes the prevalence and possible associations of FGID coexistence among Latin American infants and preschool children.

Methodology:

This is a prevalence study of infants and preschool children conducted in Colombia, Ecuador, Nicaragua and Panama. Children included were outpatients and emergency patients who were identified according to the Rome III Criteria in Spanish as suffering from regurgitation, rumination syndrome, cyclic vomiting syndrome, colic, functional diarrhea, functional constipation and/or dyspepsia. Age, sex and origin of patients were registered. Statistical analyses included Student’s T test, chi squared test, Fisher’s exact test, univariate analysis, multivariate analysis and calculation of odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals with p <0.05 set as significant.

Results:

Two thousand four hundred and seventeen children were included. Their age range was 2.4 months to 19.8 months of age, and 51.3% were male. The proportion of patients with a diagnosis of at least one FGID was 35.7%. FGID coexistence was found in 3.6% of the patients. The most frequent combination was rumination syndrome plus functional constipation. There were predominances of males, infants and Colombian children in the total sample.

Conclusion:

The most commonly coexisting FGIDs in this group of Latin America infants and preschool children were infant rumination syndrome and functional constipation which were found together most frequently among boys who were under 24 months old.

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