Repeated primary care consultations for non-specific physical symptoms in children in UK: a cohort study

BMC Primary Care

Table 2 Baseline characteristics of children according to exposure to maternal consultations for NSPS

Variable	Exposed to maternal visits for NSPS (n = 703) n(%)	Unexposed to maternal visits for NSPS (n = 734) n(%)	P -value
Child age group
2-6 years	229 (32.6)	254 (34.6)	0.069
7-11 years	188 (26.7)	158 (21.5)
12-16 years	286 (40.7)	322 (43.9)
Child gender
Female	392 (55.8)	398 (54.2)	0.594
Male	311 (44.2)	336 (45.8)
Mother age group
19-28	94 (13.4)	113 (15.4)	0.470
29-39	305 (43.4)	301 (41.0)
40-50	269 (38.3)	291 (39.6)
51-61	35 (5.0)	29 (4.0)
Child birth order
First	391 (55.6)	451 (61.4)	0.029
Not first	312 (44.4)	283 (38.6)
Household members’ count ^a	4 (1)	3 (1)	0.093
Number of siblings ^a	1 (1)	1 (1)	0.254
IMD 2007quintiles ^b
I	139 (19.8)	167 (22.8)	0.161
II	136 (19.3)	144 (19.6)
III	143 (20.3)	154 (21.0)
IV	166 (23.6)	135 (18.4)
V	115 (16.4)	129 (17.6)
Maternal history of anxiety or depression
No	441 (62.7)	635 (86.5)	<0.001
Yes	262 (37.3)	99 (13.5)

NSPS - non-specific physical symptoms; ^aNumbers are Median (Interquartile range); IMD – Index of multiple deprivation; ^bIMD 2007 scores were missing for 4 of exposed (0.5%) and 5 of unexposed (0.7%) children. Differences between exposed and unexposed children were tested using Mann-Whitney U test for household members’ count and number of siblings, and Chi-squared tests for the remaining variables.

ISSN: 2731-4553