title: Abdominal pain in a 70-year-old Danish population. An epidemiological study of the prevalence and importance of abdominal pain.
abstract: In order to assess the prevalence and importance of abdominal pain in the elderly, an epidemiological study of a 70-year-old Danish population was carried out. Seventy two percent of 1119 randomly selected persons answered a questionnaire concerning abdominal pain. One year prevalence of abdominal pain was 28% among women and 17% among men (p < 0.01). Among those with abdominal pain no significant sex difference was found as regards location, severity, frequency, or medicine consumption. Eleven percent of the men and 19% of the women had abdominal pain which they considered to be of importance to their well-being in terms of frequency, severity, or need of medicine (sex difference: chi 2 = 10.18, df = 2, p < 0.01). Participants who had no abdominal pain judged their general health to be better than those who had experienced abdominal pain (p < 0.01). It is concluded that abdominal pain is frequent in a 70 year old population and influences the well-being of the subjects. Further studies are needed to evaluate whether subjects with abdominal pain have a poorer prognosis than subjects without.
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine C, Glostrup Hospital, University of Copenhagen, Denmark.
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Kay
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Jørgensen
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Schultz-Larsen
mesh_terms: D015746:Abdominal Pain / Q000453:epidemiology*; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D001294:Attitude to Health; D003718:Denmark / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D015995:Prevalence