Validating a novel scoring system for the assessment and treatment of functional gastrointestinal disorders in children

Table 1 Bacharyya’s Questionnaire-Scale for pediatric functional gastrointestinal disorder¹

Questions (is your child bothered by)	Not bothered	Not so bothered (once/10 days or more)	Slightly bothered (1-2 times/week)	Bothered (3 or more times/week)	Strongly bothered (1 or more times/ day)	Intolerably bothered (every day with school absence/play or activity interruption)
Regurgitation	0	1	2	3	4	5
Heart burn	0	1	2	3	4	5
Throat discomfort (globus)	0	1	2	3	4	5
Epigastric pain or burning	0	1	2	3	4	5
Early satiety	0	1	2	3	4	5
Nausea	0	1	2	3	4	5
Vomiting	0	1	2	3	4	5
Epigastric bloating	0	1	2	3	4	5
Foul smelling eructation	0	1	2	3	4	5
Belching	0	1	2	3	4	5
Peri umbilical pain	0	1	2	3	4	5
Constipation/hard stool Bristol 1 and 2	0	1	2	3	4	5
Incomplete defecation	0	1	2	3	4	5
Diarrhea/soft stools	0	1	2	3	4	5
Stress related (Diarrhea/soft stool)	0	1	2	3	4	5
Any fecal urgency	0	1	2	3	4	5

¹Parents/adolescent children are asked to give a tick mark for each symptom, whatever is present. It can be multiple symptoms with different grades for each symptom. The highest score for each symptom is 5. The total highest score is 80. The lowest score is zero. The higher the score at presentation, the greater the need for intervention due to the hampered quality of life. Patients who have > 50% of their symptoms of high intensity (score 4 and 5) can be considered to have functional gastrointestinal disorders of severe grade, whereas those who presented with > 50% of their symptoms with moderate intensity (score 2 and 3) have functional gastrointestinal disorders of moderate grade and those having > 50% of the symptoms of score 0 and 1, can be classified as having mild functional gastrointestinal disorders. A total score reduction of less than and equal to 50% of the initial score indicates treatment response (provided that each symptom has shown a 2-grade reduction).