Family-Related Factors, Parenting Practices, and Cognitive Attitudes in the Risk of Functional Gastrointestinal Diseases: A Cross-Sectional Study.

PURPOSE: To examine associations between family characteristics, parenting behaviors, disease-related cognitive attitudes, and functional gastrointestinal disorder (FGID) status among family members.

DESIGN

Cross-sectional survey.

METHODS

From June to August 2024, adult guardians from community-based households in China with at least one child completed an online questionnaire. Household characteristics, parenting behaviors, and FGID-related attitudes were assessed. Multivariate logistic regression identified associated factors. Model performance was evaluated using receiver operating characteristic, calibration, and decision curve analyses.

FINDINGS: Of 896 valid households, 242 (27.0%) reported at least one family member with an FGID. Lower odds were associated with more daily time spent with children (OR = 0.929, 95% CI: 0.879-0.981), ethnic minority status (OR = 0.425, 95% CI: 0.254-0.687), greater attention to children's health (OR = 0.489, 95% CI: 0.264-0.925), and lower disease concern (OR = 0.439, 95% CI: 0.270-0.691). Greater FGID understanding was associated with higher odds (OR = 2.404, 95% CI: 1.630-3.538). The model showed moderate discrimination (AUC = 0.674), acceptable agreement between predicted and observed probabilities on calibration analysis, and positive net benefit across threshold probabilities of 0.27-0.64 on DCA.

CONCLUSIONS

Family characteristics, parenting behaviors, and disease-related attitudes were associated with household FGID status.

CLINICAL RELEVANCE: Family-centered assessment may support early identification and health education.