Our aim was to determine the prevalence of self-perceived food intolerances and the relationship of these intolerances to abdominal pain, psychosocial distress, and quality of life in children with IBS.
We conducted a cross-sectional study. Questionnaire and prospective diary data were collected from 2008 to 2014 by trained research coordinators.
Participants were children 7 to 18 years old (pediatric Rome III IBS, n=154; age-sex matched healthy children, n=32) in Houston, TX.
Perceived food intolerances and avoided foods were captured using the Childhood Food and Symptom Association Questionnaire. IBS severity was assessed by a ≥7-day pain diary and validated psychosocial questionnaires assessing quality of life, somatization, functional disability, depression, and anxiety.
We used descriptive Spearman bivariate correlation, χ2, and Poisson log-linear generalized model with Wald χ2 statistics.
A greater proportion of children with IBS (143 of 154 [92.9%]) vs healthy children (20 of 32 [62.5%]) identified at least one self-perceived food intolerance (χ2=22.5;
Children with IBS have a high prevalence of self-perceived food intolerances. The number of these intolerances is weakly associated with measures of IBS severity.