The prevalence of recurrent abdominal pain in 11-to 16-year-old Malaysian schoolchildren

Objective: To determine the prevalence of recurrent abdominal pain (RAP) am ong Malaysian school children aged from 11 to 16 years. Methodology: A preliminary cross-sectional survey in which three urban scho ols and three rural schools were selected randomly. Two classes were select ed randomly from each year. A questionnaire was given to each child asking him or her about whether they had experienced abdominal pain occurring at l east three times over a period of at least 3 months, interfering with norma l daily activity.(1) Interfering with normal daily activity was defined as missing school and/or having to stop doing a routine daily activity on acco unt of the pain. Girls whose pains were related to periods were excluded. A fter the forms had been completed, each child was again interviewed to ensu re that Apley's criteria(1) was fulfilled in cases of RAP. Results: The overall prevalence of RAP among 1549 schoolchildren (764 boys; 785 girls) was 10.2% (95% confidence interval (CI), 8.8-11.8), There appea red to be a higher prevalence in rural schoolchildren (P = 0.008: odds rati o (OR) 1.58), in those with a lower family income (P < 0.001; OR 2.02) and in children whose fathers have 3 lower educational attainment (P = 0.002; O R 1.92). Then were no significant differences in the prevalence of RAP amon g children of different sex, age, ethnic group and family size. Conclusion: In spire of differences in time and culture, the overall preval ence of 10.2% found in this study is similar to that determined by Apley.(1 ) There are significant differences in the prevalence of RAP between childr en from rural and urban schools, among children with different family incom es and among children whose parents have different educational backgrounds.