Intergenerational transmission of gastrointestinal illness behavior

OBJECTIVE: Previous research, based on retrospective reporting, suggests th at parental reinforcement and modeling may be important mechanisms in the d evelopment of gastrointestinal illness behavior in children and adults. The aim of this study was to determine the relationship between the illness be havior of parents, in the form of health care use for irritable bowel sympt oms, and the illness behavior of their children, without relying on retrosp ective recall. METHODS: A comparison of two matched groups was made. Groups included 631 c hildren of parents who were diagnosed with irritable bowel syndrome during 1 calendar yr and 646 children of parents matched by parental age, gender, and number of children in the family who did not receive an IBS diagnosis d uring the same 1 yr. Health care use and costs over a 3-yr calendar period for all children and their parents collected from the health care database of a large health maintenance organization were evaluated. RESULTS: Case children had significantly more ambulatory care visits for al l causes (mean 12.26 vs 9.81, p = 0.0001) and more ambulatory visits for ga strointestinal symptoms (0.35 vs 0.18, p = 0.0001). Outpatient health care costs over the 3-yr period were also significantly higher for case than con trol children ($1979 vs $1546, p = 0.0001). Controlling for the total numbe r of ambulatory visits of the parents, excluding gastrointestinal visits, d id not alter the findings. Gender of the IBS parent was not related to chil dren's gastrointestinal visits. CONCLUSION: This study extends previous research by showing that specific t ypes of illness behavior may be learned through modeling. (C) 2000 by Am. C ell. of Gastroenterology.