Patients with Multiple Functional Gastrointestinal Disorders (FGIDs) Show Increased Illness Severity: A Cross-Sectional Study in a Tertiary Care FGID Specialty Clinic

Table 3

Health care utilization and work-related impairment.

	Effective	FGID patients in total () [20]	Patients with 1 FGID diagnosis ()	Patients with >1 FGID diagnoses ()	value
Appointments in the FGID clinic (1 year)^2	268	2.00 [2.00]	2.00 [2.00]	2.00 [2.00]	0.958^c
, (%)	268	122 (45.52)	62 (44.93)	60 (46.15)	0.840^c
, (%)	268	76 (28.36)	40 (28.99)	36 (27.69)	0.814^c
, (%)	268	39 (14.55)	22 (15.94)	17 (13.07)	0.506^c
, (%)	268	31 (11.57)	14 (10.14)	17 (13.07)	0.453^c
Appointment in the psychosomatic outpatient clinic of Heidelberg University, (%)	271	82 (30.26)	40 (28.37)	42 (32.31)	0.481^b
Medical appointments in the last 4 weeks^2	259	2.00 [1.00]	1.00 [1.00]	2.00 [1.80]	0.496^c
, (%)		71 (27.41)	38 (29.00)	33 (25.78)	0.561^b
, (%)		70 (27.03)	32 (24.43)	38 (29.69)	0.341^b
, (%)		64 (24.71)	32 (24.43)	32 (25.00)	0.915^b
Psychotherapeutic treatment, (%)	262	139 (53.05)	76 (55.47)	63 (50.40)	0.411^b
Currently, (%)		70 (26.72)	33 (24.09)	37 (29.60)	0.314^b
Previously, (%)		69 (26.34)	43 (31.39)	26 (20.80)	0.052^b
Current medication for anxiety, depression, or stress, (%)	259	78 (30.12)	40 (29.85)	38 (30.40)	0.923^b
Previous inpatient stay, (%) (lifetime)	268	43 (16.04)	21 (15.22)	22 (16.92)	0.704^b
Psych. acute care hospital, (%)		27 (10.07)	13 (9.42)	14 (10.77)	0.714^b
Psych. rehabilitation hospital, (%)		9 (3.36)	5 (3.62)	4 (3.08)	1.000^b
Work-related impairment due to GI symptoms in the last year (IBS-SSS)
Weeks absent from work (absenteeism)^2	155	2.00 [6.00]	1.00 [3.00]	3.00 [10.00]	0.002^c
Weeks at work suffering (presenteeism)^2	83	25.00 [48.00]	12.00 [31.00]	38.00 [44.00]	0.003^c

¹Mean (standard deviation). ²Median [interquartile range]. ^a-test. ^b2 test. ^cMann–Whitney test. Most of the data of the column with FGID patients in total were shown similarly in Berens et al. [20]. All patients with >1 FGID diagnoses had two FGIDs.