Abdominal pain in Finnish young adults with juvenile idiopathic arthritis

Figures & data

Table 1. Characteristics of the patients with JIA at the study visit according to the frequency of abdominal pain (AP).

Characteristics	No AP n = 49	Seldom AP n = 37	Frequent AP n = 11	p Value*
Female, n (%)	23 (47)	30 (81)	9 (82)	.002
Age, mean (SD)	23 (4)	23 (5)	25 (5)	.36
BMI, mean (SD)	22.8 (3.6)	23.8 (4.9)	24.0 (4.5)	.24
JIA duration, mean (SD)	17.5 (1.3)	17.2 (1.3)	17.5 (1.3)	.61
JIA category, n (%)				.40
Persistent oligoarthritis	14 (29)	13 (35)	2 (18)
Extended oligoarthritis	11 (22)	9 (24)	2 (18)
Polyarthritis, RF-pos	1 (2)	0 (0)	0 (0)
Polyarthritis, RF-neg	11 (22)	9 (24)	6 (55)
Psoriatic	6 (12)	1 (3)	0 (0)
Enthesitis-related	5 (10)	2 (5)	1 (9)
Systemic onset	1 (2)	0 (0)	0 (0)
Undifferentiated	0 (0)	3 (8)	0 (0)
DAS-28, mean (SD)	1.81 (0.72)	2.03 (0.81)	1.90 (0.35)	.39
HAQ, mean (SD)	0.06 (0.22)	0.09 (0.22)	0.56 (0.91)	.002
Remission, n (%)**	26 (53)	15 (41)	2 (18)	.037
Pain VAS, mean (SD)***	8 (13)	21 (27)	31 (20)	<.001
ESR, mean (SD)	6.5 (6.9)	6.9 (7.0)	4.4 (3.6)	.65
CRP, mean (SD)	5.0 (19.2)	1.2 (2.5)	1.0 (1.4)	.29
PSQI total, mean (SD)	4.8 (3.0)	5.4 (2.6)	5.8 (2.8)	.21
Fatigue total, mean (SD)	2.6 (1.0)	3.1 (1.1)	4.2 (1.4)	<.001
Fatigue, VAS mean (SD)	32 (22)	42 (25)	57 (18)	<.001
Physical exercise frequency, n (%)				.79
Less than once a week	3 (7)	4 (12)	2 (20)
Once a week	6 (14)	6 (18)	2 (20)
Two to three times a week	20 (48)	14 (42)	1 (10)
Almost daily	13 (31)	9 (27)	5 (50)
Gastrointestinal comorbidities, n (%)	2 (4)	1 (3)	2 (18)	.32
Coeliac disease	1 (2)	0 (0)	0 (0)
Ulcerative colitis	0 (0)	0 (0)	0 (0)
Crohn’s disease	1 (2)	1 (2)	0 (0)
IBS	0 (0)	0 (0)	2 (4)
Comorbidities (other), n (%)	0 (0)	0 (0)	7 (63)	<.001
Hypothyroidism	0 (0)	0 (0)	1 (10)
Depression	0 (0)	0 (0)	2 (20)
Panic disorder	0 (0)	0 (0)	2 (20)
Uveitis	0 (0)	0 (0)	4 (36)

AP: abdominal pain; BMI: body mass index; JIA: juvenile idiopathic arthritis; RF: rheumatoid factor; DAS-28: disease activity score; HAQ: health assessment questionnaire; VAS: visual analogue scale; ESR: erythrocyte sedimentation rate; CRP: C-reactive protein; PSQI: Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index; IBS: irritable bowel syndrome according to the Rome III criteria [20].

*p Value for linearity.

**Remission off medication (28).

***Arthritis-related pain.

Figure 1. Health-related quality of life (HRQoL) components between the groups of AP measured by the RAND-36 survey. Age- and gender-matched healthy controls [26] are presented on the dotted line. AP: abdominal pain. p Value for linearity.

Table 2. Medication use of patients with JIA at the study visit according to the frequency of abdominal pain (AP).

Medication	No AP n = 49	Seldom AP n = 37	Frequent AP n = 11	p Value*
NSAIDs	12 (24)	10 (27)	6 (55)	.14
Prednisolone	0 (0)	2 (5)	1 (9)	.081
Methotrexate	5 (10)	9 (24)	4 (36)	.023
Azathioprine	1 (2)	0 (0)	0 (0)	.61
Hydroxychloroquine	3 (6)	4 (11)	2 (18)	.21
Leflunomide	1 (2)	1 (3)	1 (9)	.39
Sulfasalazine	2 (4)	3 (8)	3 (27)	.032
Cyclosporine	0 (0)	0 (0)	1 (9)	.11
bDMARDs	15 (31)	11 (30)	4 (36)	.87

Data are shown as n (%); AP: abdominal pain; NSAIDs: non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs; bDMARDs: biologic disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs.

*p Value for linearity.

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