Introduction:

The pathophysiology of functional gastrointestinal disorders includes alteration of the gut-brain axis.

Objective:

This study measures prevalence and of functional gastrointestinal disorders and discusses possible associations with anxiety in children with these conditions.

Methodology:

This is a prevalence study of children between 8 and 18 years of age diagnosed with functional gastrointestinal disorders as defined by the Rome III Criteria and anxiety as defined by the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory for Children in several Colombian cities. Sociodemographic and family variables were included. Statistical analyses included measures of central tendency, univariate and multivariate analysis, and logistic regression, with p <0.05 established as significant.

Results:

The study included 1,496 children of whom 50.5% were girls. The boys average age was 12.7 ± 2.1 years, 79.9% had suffered transitory anxiety, and 51.5% had tendencies to experience states of anxiety. State/anxiety predominated in male adolescents while trait/anxiety predominated in female adolescents with functional gastrointestinal disorders. Possible risk factors for state/anxiety were age and sex. Possible risk factors for trait/anxiety were age, sex, and functional gastrointestinal disorders.

Conclusions:

About half of the children tended to states of anxiety. Female adolescents predominated with risk factors of age, sex, and some functional gastrointestinal disorders.

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