Abstract
In order to assess the prevalence and importance of abdominal pain in the elderly, an epidemiological study of a 70-year-old Danish population was carried out. Seventy two percent of 1119 randomly selected persons answered a questionnaire concerning abdominal pain. One year prevalence of abdominal pain was 28% among women and 17% among men ( p < 0.01). Among those with abdominal pain no significant sex difference was found as regards location, severity, frequency, or medicine consumption. Eleven percent of the men and 19% of the women had abdominal pain which they considered to be of importance to their well-being in terms of frequency, severity, or need of medicine (sex difference: χ 2 = 10.18, df = 2, p < 0.01). Participants who had no abdominal pain judged their general health to be better than those who had experienced abdominal pain ( p < 0.01). It is concluded that abdominal pain is frequent in a 70 year old population and influences the well-being of the subjects. Further studies are needed to evaluate whether subjects with abdominal pain have a poorer prognosis than subjects without.
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