Parental health and psychosomatic symptoms in preschool children: A cross-sectional study in Scania, Sweden

Aim: The aim of the study was to assess the association between parental self-rated health and recurrent abdominal pain (RAP) in preschool children. Methods: A questionnaire, including questions about sociodemographic and psychosocial factors, lifestyle, parental and child health, was sent to parents of all 4-year-old children in Scania, Sweden. The response rate was 43.6%. The outcome was RAP and the main exposure was parental self-rated health (SRH). Covariates included sociodemographic, lifestyle and psychosocial factors. Logistic regression analyses were used in a five-step model to estimate the odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) of parental SRH in relation to child RAP. Results: Logistic regression analysis showed higher odds of RAP among children whose parents reported domestic violence, economic worries and poor SRH (mothers OR = 2.1 (95% CI: 1.6, 2.7) and fathers OR = 1.5 (95% CI: 1.1, 2.0)). Adjustment for sociodemographic, lifestyle and psychosocial factors reduced the OR for RAP in the children of mothers with poor SRH (OR = 1.6 (95% CI: 1.2, 2.2)) and fathers with poor SRH (OR = 1.2 (CI 95%: 0.8, 1.7)). Poor SRH was associated with less reading to the child as well as parental perceptions of insufficiency in the interaction with the child. Conclusions: Health professionals have a key position to prevent psychosomatic symptoms in childhood by identifying the living conditions of children with RAP and particularly, to pay attention to parental poor health to identify if support to the family and/or child protection interventions are needed. Health professionals meeting adult patients with poor health should identify whether they are parents and have children who might need information, support and/or protection.