Elsevier

The Journal of Pediatrics

Volume 169, February 2016, Pages 98-104.e1
The Journal of Pediatrics

Original Article
High Prevalence of Nausea among School Children in Latin America

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpeds.2015.10.052Get rights and content

Objectives

To evaluate the prevalence of nausea and its association with functional gastrointestinal disorders (FGIDs) in a large-scale, population-based study of Latin American school children.

Study design

This cross-sectional study collected data from children in 3 Latin American countries. A Spanish version of the Questionnaire on Pediatric Gastrointestinal Symptoms-Rome III Version (QPGS-III) was administered to school children in Central and South America. Subjects were classified into FGIDs based on Rome criteria (QPGS-III). Students from 4 public and 4 private schools in the countries of El Salvador, Panama, and Ecuador participated in this epidemiologic study.

Results

A total of 1137 school children with mean age 11.5 (SD 1.9, range 8-15) years completed the QPGS-III (El Salvador n = 399; Panama n = 321; Ecuador n = 417). Nausea was present in 15.9% of all school children. Two hundred sixty-eight (24%) children met criteria for at least 1 FGID. Nausea was significantly more common in children with FGIDs compared with those without: El Salvador 38% vs 15% (P < .001); Panama 22% vs 7% (P < .001); Ecuador 25% vs 13% (P = .004). Among children with FGIDs, those with functional constipation had a high prevalence of nausea. Nausea was significantly more common in girls and children attending private schools.

Conclusions

Nausea is commonly present in Latin American school children. FGIDs are frequently associated with nausea.

Section snippets

Methods

This cross-sectional, community-based study was conducted between May 2013 and June 2014 in Central and South American schools in the countries of El Salvador, Panama, and Ecuador. The investigators selected the capital cities of each of the countries: San Salvador (population 316 090), Panama City (population 880 691), and Quito (population 1 607 734) to conduct the epidemiologic study because of large population sizes and diversity. To assure ethnic, racial, and socioeconomic diversity, we

Results

A total of 1380 parents were invited to participate in the study and 1207 (87.5%) parents (569, 50.0% public schools and 568, 50.0% private schools) consented to their children's participation. Thirty-five subjects (2.9%) were excluded from the study based on the presence of one or more organic disorders. Eighty-two percent of those children enrolled in the study completed the questionnaires (n = 1137; Figure 1). The distribution of the subjects who completed the study by country was El

Discussion

Our results highlight that nausea was: (1) present in almost 16% of all school children; (2) significantly more common in those suffering from a FGID compared with those who did not; (3) significantly more common in girls and children attending private schools; and (4) was common in conjunction with constipation, even though it was well distributed across various FGIDs. These findings are important as they shed light to the common occurrence of FGIDs and chronic nausea in school children who

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    The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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