Recurrent pain in children, socio-economic factors and accumulation in families.
The aim of this study was to estimate the prevalence of parent-reported pain among children in the Nordic countries in 1996, and to describe the association between recurrent pain in children and parental socio-economic factors. We also wanted to estimate the association between parental pain and childhood pain and co-occurrence of different pain patterns in the same child. Data were obtained from a cross-sectional survey on children's health and well-being in the Nordic countries in 1996. About 10,000 children aged 2-17 years of age were selected from population registries. Mean response rate was 68%. We selected the cases > or = 7 years where the respondent was the child's biological mother or father, yielding a total of 6230 subjects. The adjusted analyses were performed using logistic regression in SPSS. The total prevalence of headache, abdominal pain and back pain among children 7-17 years of age was 14.9, 8.3 and 4.7%, respectively. The most common pain combination was headache and abdominal pain. Pain was most frequent among girls. The prevalence was slightly higher in low educated or low-income families compared to those of high status. Children living in low educated, low-income, worker families had approximately a 1.4-fold odds of having pain. There was a strong association between the different pain conditions, and between pain and other forms of distress in the same child. A site-specific association between parental and child pain was also shown, but we assume that this might have been mediated through subjective (information) bias.
Grøholt
Else-Karin
EK
Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway. else-karin.groholt@fhi.no
Stigum
Hein
H
Nordhagen
Rannveig
R
Köhler
Lennart
L
D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D002669:Child Welfare / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D002675:Child, Preschool; D002908:Chronic Disease; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005192:Family Health; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010146:Pain / Q000145:classification / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000503:physiopathology; D010290:Parents; D012008:Recurrence; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D013548:Sweden / Q000453:epidemiology