Introduction:

Gastrointestinal symptoms determine diagnosis and treatment in children with excess weight.

Objective:

To define reason of consultation and gastrointestinal manifestations in patients with overweight or obesity.exeso

Methods:

A retrospective descriptive study was carried out in a Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition Center of Colombia from 2009 to 2015. 1 650 clinical records of patients with excess weight who attended the consultation were reviewed. Data was analyzed with STATA V12, one-tailed Fisher's test was included, significance of p ≤ 0.05.

Results:

222 patients were studied with a mean age of 71 months (Interquartile range 19-124). 57.7 % of them presented overweight and 42.3 % obesity and 73.9 % were consulted due to gastrointestinal symptoms. A high percentage of cesarean sections and exclusive breastfeeding of short duration were presented. In overweight patients, the main reason for consultation was abdominal pain and in obese ones it was excess weight. In both groups, the most frequent symptom was abdominal pain (41.6 % in overweight, 48.9 % in obesity). Increased appetite was the only symptom with a statistically significant difference (p= 0.010). Functional constipation was the most frequent gastrointestinal diagnosis. When comparing the groups, differences were found among diagnoses of functional constipation (p= 0.004), food allergy (p= 0.003) and gastroesophageal reflux (p= 0.011).

Conclusions:

Gatrointestinal manifestations are frequent and are the main reason of consultation in patients with excess weight. Abdominal pain is a frequent symptom in those patients incapacitating them and compelling to consult a pediatric gastroenterologist. Excess weight is not the main consultation reason. Functional constipation is the most common gastrointestinal diagnosis. Lifestyle changes are required to prevent or treat excess weight and associated symptoms.

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