Is Vitamin D Deficiency Linked to Functional Constipation In Children

Constipation is one of the most common causes of patient visits to pediatric clinics. Prevalence of constipation is estimated between 1.9-27.2% in the USA (Rasquin et al., 2006).

In children aged <18 years, its prevalence was about 0.7-29.6%. Untreated constipation may cause fecal impaction and fecal soiling5 which are seen in about 1-3% of children (Bulloch and Tenenbein, 2002).

Constipation may cause gastrointestinal problems such as abdominal pain, anal pruritus, rectal bleeding, and anorexia or non-gastrointestinal complications such as urinary problems (Dehghani et al., 2015).

Functional constipation is defined as constipation without an organic etiology and is diagnosed according to the Rome criteria1-3. The symptom- based Rome criteria were first developed for adults in 1989 during a consensus meeting of experts in the field of functional gastrointestinal disorders. These criteria have been updated several times and are now internationally acknowledged and used for both research and clinical purposes. The revised Rome IV criteria- for childhood and adult functional constipation were published in 2016 (Benninga et al., 2016), (Hyams et al., 2016), (Lacy et al., 2016).

Functional constipation, a common disorder in all age groups, shows some similarities in children and adults, but important differences exist regarding epidemiology, symptomatology, pathophysiology, diagnostic workup and therapeutic management. In this research, we hypothesized that serum vitamin D deficiency could be associated with chronic functional constipation in children secondary to delayed transit intestinal time and consequently we will investigate this relationship and the related psychological aspects.