Journal of North Khorasan

Background & Objectives: Given constipation as one of the common digestive problems in pediatric patients, the psychiatric comorbidities together with chronic constipation may result in some disorders in children’s life quality. This study aims to evaluate the life quality and psychiatric comorbidities in 2 to 18 years old children and teens with constipation.

Material & Methods: This study, as a case control study was conducted through many children and teens who were homogeneous in terms of sex and age, 55 patients with functional constipation and 55 people without it. The parents and children were provided with questionnaires of the demographic particulars, QOL and SQD, following collection of their history and physical examinations.  The analysis of the collected data was done based on the statistical tests of  Chi-Squared test, one sided variance analysis and T-test through SPSS 16 software.

Result: The average scores of the life quality obtained from the children and parents were 54.67%+3.9   and 49.86%+3.2  in the case group and 63.26%+4.0 and 66.09%+3.4 in the control group, with a significant difference in the score reported by the parents (P=0.014). A difference has been observed between these two groups due to emotional performance (P=0.024 for parents and P=0.016 for children). The total estimated score of SDQ questionnaire employed for these two groups indicated abnormality of 93% in the case group and 83% in the control group which were statistically not significant (P=0.631). There was no difference through the subgroups mentioned in this questionnaire and the impact scores of these two groups (P>0.05).  

Conclusion: The life quality based on the parents’ reports and the emotional performance in the children with constipation are too low; and screening through children is recommended to help them in the treatment and the control of the constipation and its severity by referring to the child psychiatrists.

Key words: Constipation, psychological symptoms, behavioral symptoms, quality of life