Acute gastroenteritis ups DGBI risk in children

Disorders of gut-brain interaction (DGBIs) tend to develop more in children in acute gastroenteritis (AGE), according to a study. Moreover, an association is seen between AGE symptom severity and postinfectious (PI) DGBI.

“AGE is the most common disease predisposing to the development of DGBIs in adults,” the authors said. “There is paucity of data on incidence and risk factors for the development of PI-DGBI in children.”

To address this gap, the authors conducted a prospective controlled, cohort study. They sought to determine whether AGE and symptom severity contribute to the development of PI-DGBI in children.

Overall, 49 children with recent AGE and 55 siblings (controls) were included in the analysis. They were followed for 6 months. Finally, the authors used a validated questionnaire (QPGS IV) per Rome criteria to examine DGBIs.

Of the participants, four children with AGE (8.1 percent) and one control (1.8 percent) had been previously diagnosed with DGBI.

At 3 months, 10 children in the AGE cohort had a DGBI diagnosis compared with only one among controls (20.4 percent vs 1.8 percent; p=0.00). Among participants with no DGBI history prior to AGE diagnosis, six children in the AGE group vs none in the control group were diagnosed with DGBI (12.2 percent vs 0 percent; p=0.01) at follow-up.

Five children with AGE (one lost to follow-up) had persistent DGBI at 6-month follow-up (p=0.03). Notably, AGE severity showed a significant association with PI-DGBI (ρ, 0.707; p=0.00).