title: Health-related quality of life in pediatric patients with functional and organic gastrointestinal diseases.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To compare health-related quality of life (HRQOL) in pediatric patients with functional gastrointestinal disorders (FGIDs) and organic gastrointestinal (GI) diseases with an age-, sex-, and race/ethnicity-matched healthy sample across GI diagnostic groups and with one another.
  
  
  METHODS
  The Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory 4.0 Generic Core Scales were completed in a 9-site study by 689 families. Patients had 1 of 7 physician-diagnosed GI disorders: chronic constipation, functional abdominal pain, irritable bowel syndrome, functional dyspepsia, Crohn's disease, ulcerative colitis, and gastroesophageal reflux disease. The healthy control sample included 1114 families. School days missed, days in bed and needing care, parent missed workdays, work impact, and healthcare utilization were compared as well.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Patients with an FGID or organic GI disease demonstrated lower HRQOL than the healthy controls across all dimensions (physical, emotional, social, and school; P < .001 for all), with larger effect sizes for patients with an FGID. Patients with an FGID manifested lower HRQOL than those with an organic GI disease. Patients with an FGID or organic GI disease missed more school, spent more days in bed and needing care, had greater healthcare utilization, and had parents who missed more workdays with greater work impact (P < .001 for most), with larger effect sizes for the patients with an FGID.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Patients with an FGID or organic GI disease demonstrate impaired HRQOL compared with healthy children. HRQOL can be used as a common metric to compare patient outcomes in clinical research and practice both within and across groups of patients with FGIDs and organic GI diseases.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, College of Medicine, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX; Department of Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning, College of Architecture, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX. Electronic address: jvarni@arch.tamu.edu.
authors.forename: James W
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Varni
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatric Dentistry and Orthodontics, Faculty of Dentistry, Federal University of Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil.
authors.forename: Cristiane B
authors.initials: CB
authors.lastname: Bendo
authors.affiliation: Center for Motility and Functional Gastrointestinal Disorders, Boston Children's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA.
authors.forename: Samuel
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Nurko
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Baylor College of Medicine, Texas Children's Hospital, Houston, TX; Children's Nutrition Research Center, Baylor College of Medicine, Texas Children's Hospital, Houston, TX.
authors.forename: Robert J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Shulman
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Baylor College of Medicine, Texas Children's Hospital, Houston, TX.
authors.forename: Mariella M
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Self
authors.affiliation: Division of Gastroenterology, Hepatology, and Nutrition, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, OH.
authors.forename: James P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Franciosi
authors.affiliation: Division of Gastroenterology, Hepatology, and Nutrition, Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, IL.
authors.forename: Miguel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Saps
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatric Gastroenterology, Primary Children's Hospital, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT.
authors.forename: John F
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Pohl
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D017281:Cost of Illness; D005260:Female; D005767:Gastrointestinal Diseases / Q000523:psychology*; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011788:Quality of Life / Q000523:psychology*; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires