Introduction
Gender-specific differences in adult patients with immune mediated diseases like inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) or coeliac diseases are increasingly recognised (1). In paediatric patients, gender differences in the incidence of IBD have been identified in a pooled analysis of population-based studies (2). However, gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms associated with paediatric IBD or coeliac disease and possible gender differences in GI symptoms have not been systematically studied.
Aims & Methods
Our aim was to utilise the newly developed, validated paediatric Structured Assessment of Gastrointestinal Symptoms (pSAGIS) scale to systematically assess GI symptoms in children with Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis, and coeliac disease by gender in an paediatric gastrointestinal outpatient clinic.
The pSAGIS is a patient-reported outcome measure (PROM) that consists of 21 GI-related questions and assesses the type and five severity grades of symptoms.
pSAGIS scales were completed by patients or their caregivers attending the GI outpatient unit of St. Anna Children’s Hospital, Vienna, Austria between the years 2016 and 2020. The diagnoses of patients were established on clinical terms after a complete examination deemed clinically necessary. Based on pSAGIS, an overall GI-symptom score was calculated as the sum of each individual symptom score for patients with Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis and coeliac disease, and symptom scores were compared between female and male patients. In addition, GI symptoms were summarised in five symptom groups (abdominal pain, dyspepsia, diarrhea, constipation, dysphagia/nausea). Data are given as mean ± standard deviation (SD), a p-value <0.05 was considered significant.
Results
From 3344 collected pSAGIS questionnaires 12.9% (n=430) were completed by children diagnosed with Crohn’s disease (71.9% male, 28.1% female), 9.0% (n=302) with ulcerative colitis (57.0% male, 43.0% female), and 24.7% (n=827) with coeliac disease (36.4% male, 63.6% female). In patients with Crohn’s disease the overall GI-symptom score was significantly higher among female patients comparing to male patients (7.3±10,1 vs. 2. 8±4,2, p<0.001) while in patients with ulcerative colitis overall symptom scores were higher in male than in female patients (5.6±8.5 vs 2.9±5.9; p=0.002). The table shows scores of symptom groups in patients with Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis. The overall GI symptom score was low in patients with coeliac disease, and no significant differences were found between male and female coeliac patients (3.1±4.6 vs. 3.9±6.4, p=0,064).
| Crohn's disease | Ulcerative colitis |
| male | female | p-value | male | female | p-value |
| abdominal pain | 1.0±2.1
| 2.6±3.8
| <0.0001
| 1.7±2.7
| 1.3±2.9
| 0.1692
|
| dyspepsia | 0.9±1.5
| 2.7±4.7
| <0.0001
| 1.5±2.6
| 0.4±1.2
| <0.0001
|
| diarrhea | 0.5±1.1
| 0.8±1.7
| 0.0247
| 1.8±3.0
| 0.6±1.7
| <0.0001
|
| constipation | 0.2±0.6
| 0.4±1.0
| 0.0042
| 0.2±0.6
| 0.4±0.8
| 0.0771
|
| dysphagia/nausea | 0.3±0.8
| 0.8±1.4
| <0.0001
| 0.4±1.2
| 0.2±0.9
| 0.3156
|
| Mean symptom score ± SD
|
| Mean symptom score ± SD
|
|
Conclusion
Gender specific symptoms and symptom burden exist in paediatric patients with Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis. These gender differences may affect time to diagnosis, initiation of treatment and adherence to treatment and need further investigation. The pSAGIS is an easy adjunct to gastrointestinal history taking and allows a valid and systematic symptom assessment in a paediatric outpatient clinic.
References
(1) Greuter T et al, Digestion 2020; (2) Shah SC et al, Gastroenterology 2018