Prevalence of disabling abdominal pain and menstrual cramp. Results from a representative survey of the general German population

There are no data available on the prevalence of disabling abdominal pain and menstrual cramp in adults in Germany. Abdominal pain and menstrual cramp, additional somatic symptoms and depressive symptoms were assessed by the Patient Health Questionnaires (PHQ) 15 and 9 in persons ≥ 14 years from a sample representative of the general German population. The association of disabling abdominal and menstrual cramp with demographic and clinical variables was tested by logistic regression analyses. A total of 2524 out of 4064 (62.1 %) contacted persons participated in the study. Of the participants 11.9 % reported suffering from slight abdominal pain and 0.9 % reported suffering from severe abdominal pain within the last 4 weeks. Female gender with an odds ratio (OR) of 2.23 (95 % confidence interval CI 1.67-2.98, p