Appendix

Distribution of Participants by Site

The distribution of participants by site is as follows: Nationwide Children’s Hospital, Columbus, OH, n=134; Texas Children’s Hospital, Houston, TX, n=121; Children’s Hospital Colorado, Aurora, CO, n=118; Boston Children’s Hospital, Boston, MA, n=79; Children’s Medical Center, Dallas, TX, n=61; Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, OH, n=50; Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, Chicago, IL, n=50; Goryeb Children’s Hospital at Morristown Medical Center, Morristown, NJ, n=50; Primary Children’s Medical Center, Salt Lake City, UT, n=26.

Appendix Table 1. PedsQL™ Gastrointestinal Symptoms Module Child Self-Report Item Content for Ages 8-12

Stomach Pain and Hurt
  1. I feel pain or hurt in my stomach

  1. I get stomach aches

  1. My stomach hurts

  1. I wake up at night with stomach aches

  1. I feel sick to my stomach

  1. I get an upset stomach

Stomach Discomfort When Eating
  1. When I eat I get sick to my stomach

  1. When I eat my stomach feels bad

  1. My stomach hurts when I eat

  1. My stomach feels heavy when I eat

  1. I feel full as soon as I start to eat

Food and Drink Limits
  1. I cannot eat some foods

  1. I cannot drink some drinks

  1. I am not able to eat what I want

  1. I am not able to drink what I want

  1. I cannot eat some foods because they make me sick

  1. I cannot eat the foods that my friends eat

Trouble Swallowing
  1. It is hard for me to swallow food

  1. It hurts when I swallow

  1. Food gets stuck going down

Heartburn and Reflux
  1. I get a burning feeling in my throat

  1. I have pain or hurt in my chest

  1. I burp a lot

  1. Food comes back up into my mouth after eating

Nausea and Vomiting
  1. I feel like throwing up

  1. I feel like throwing up when I eat

  1. I feel like throwing up after I eat

  1. I throw up

Gas and Bloating
  1. My stomach feels full of gas

  1. My stomach feels very full

  1. My stomach gets big and hard

  1. I have a lot of gas

  1. I pass a lot of gas

  1. My stomach feels gassy

  1. My stomach makes noises

Constipation
  1. I still feel full after I poop

  1. I feel like I am not done after I poop

  1. I feel like I cannot get all the poop to come out

  1. It hurts when I go poop

  1. My poop is hard

  1. My poop is lumpy

  1. I have to push hard to poop

  1. My poop gets stuck when I poop

  1. My bottom hurts after I go poop

  1. It takes a long time for poop to come out

  1. I have to work hard to make poop come out

  1. I do not want to poop because it hurts

  1. I spend a lot of time on the toilet going poop

  1. My stomach hurts when I go poop

Blood in Poop
  1. There is blood on my toilet paper after I go poop

  1. There is blood in my poop

Diarrhea
  1. I need to be near the bathroom a lot

  1. I have to rush to the bathroom to poop

  1. I feel like I am always in the bathroom going poop

  1. I wake up at night to go poop

  1. My poop is watery

  1. I have poop accidents in my underwear

  1. I have to go poop a lot

Worry About Going Poop
  1. I worry about going poop in my pants

  1. I worry that I will not make it to the bathroom in time

  1. I worry that it will hurt when I go poop

  1. I worry that I will have to use the bathroom at school

  1. I worry that I will poop in my pants at school

Worry About Stomach Aches
  1. I worry about my stomach aches

  1. I worry that my stomach will hurt in school

Medicines
  1. It is hard for me to take my medicines

  1. I forget to take my medicines

  1. It is hard for me to swallow my medicines

  1. I do not like having to take my medicines all the time

Communication
  1. It is hard for me to tell the doctors and nurses how I feel

  1. It is hard for me to ask the doctors and nurses questions

  1. It is hard for me to explain my illness to other people

  1. It is hard for me to explain my illness to my friends

  1. It is hard for me to talk to my parents about my illness

Reproduced with permission from J.W. Varni, Ph.D. Copyright © 1998.

The PedsQL™ is available at

Appendix Table 2. Pearson’s Product Moment Correlations between PedsQL™ Gastrointestinal Symptoms Module Scales and PedsQL™ 4.0 Generic Core Scales for Child Self-Report and Parent Proxy-Report

Child Self-Report / Parent Proxy-Report
PedsQL™ Scales1 / GCT / PH / PsyH / EF / SF / SchF / GCT / PH / PsyH / EF / SF / SchF
GI Module Total Score / 0.684 / 0.548 / 0.673 / 0.592 / 0.491 / 0.565 / 0.604 / 0.511 / 0.583 / 0.542 / 0.449 / 0.497
GI SymptomsTotal Score / 0.647 / 0.524 / 0.634 / 0.556 / 0.452 / 0.540 / 0.566 / 0.489 / 0.540 / 0.497 / 0.412 / 0.472
Stomach Pain and Hurt / 0.555 / 0.502 / 0.514 / 0.487 / 0.293 / 0.462 / 0.485 / 0.459 / 0.439 / 0.428 / 0.285 / 0.393
Stomach DiscomfortWhen Eating / 0.530 / 0.499 / 0.479 / 0.427 / 0.258 / 0.471 / 0.496 / 0.455 / 0.457 / 0.416 / 0.333 / 0.402
Food and Drink Limits / 0.430 / 0.384 / 0.400 / 0.363 / 0.265 / 0.349 / 0.446 / 0.392 / 0.422 / 0.377 / 0.349 / 0.361
Trouble Swallowing / 0.355 / 0.293 / 0.344 / 0.251 / 0.339 / 0.267 / 0.313 / 0.265 / 0.300 / 0.228 / 0.272 / 0.276
Heart Burn and Reflux / 0.427 / 0.286 / 0.454 / 0.383 / 0.332 / 0.395 / 0.336 / 0.280 / 0.327 / 0.290 / 0.203 / 0.336
Nausea and Vomiting / 0.412 / 0.331 / 0.404 / 0.392 / 0.242 / 0.344 / 0.383 / 0.318 / 0.373 / 0.338 / 0.249 / 0.358
Gas and Bloating / 0.442 / 0.308 / 0.463 / 0.419 / 0.325 / 0.384 / 0.376 / 0.332 / 0.354 / 0.343 / 0.250 / 0.310
Constipation / 0.511 / 0.377 / 0.523 / 0.460 / 0.426 / 0.399 / 0.344 / 0.285 / 0.335 / 0.303 / 0.287 / 0.288
Blood in Poop / 0.251 / 0.227 / 0.232 / 0.162 / 0.150 / 0.255 / 0.249 / 0.218 / 0.235 / 0.196 / 0.188 / 0.200
Diarrhea / 0.441 / 0.364 / 0.428 / 0.328 / 0.359 / 0.369 / 0.368 / 0.285 / 0.371 / 0.360 / 0.291 / 0.292
Worry About Going Poop / 0.492 / 0.390 / 0.487 / 0.404 / 0.460 / 0.345 / 0.421 / 0.353 / 0.409 / 0.386 / 0.350 / 0.305
Worry About Stomach Aches / 0.548 / 0.450 / 0.534 / 0.526 / 0.323 / 0.447 / 0.495 / 0.385 / 0.499 / 0.510 / 0.304 / 0.427
Medicines / 0.343 / 0.266 / 0.342 / 0.309 / 0.255 / 0.277 / 0.278 / 0.218 / 0.281 / 0.252 / 0.246 / 0.213
Communication / 0.510 / 0.377 / 0.522 / 0.458 / 0.376 / 0.441 / 0.376 / 0.276 / 0.390 / 0.377 / 0.312 / 0.314

Note: All Pearson’s product moment correlations are statistically significant at p<.001.

Pearson’s product moment correlation effect sizes are designated as small (0.10), medium (0.30), and large (0.50).

1Abbreviations: PedsQL™ 4.0 Generic Core Total (GCT),Physical Health (PH),Psychosocial Health (PsyH), Emotional Functioning (EF),Social Functioning (SF),School Functioning (SchF). Gastrointestinal Symptoms Module (GI Module).