Self-assessment of hunger among ED patients with abdominal pain: lack of association with disease severity

[...]ED patients with abdominal pain report a wide range of hunger scores. Self-pay or no insurance 30 (9.9%) Private insurance (only) 62 (20.4%) Medicare 34 (11.1%) Medicaid (including care source) 162 (53.3%) Medicare and Medicaid 10 (3.3%) Government insurance 1 (0.3%) Workman compensation 3 (1.0%) Other 2 (0.7%) Table 1 Demographic information for 304 ED patients with abdominal pain Category No. of patients Median hunger score (IQR) Mean hunger score (CI) Hepatic disease (liver, gall bladder) 13 7 (2-9) 5.8 (3.4-8.1) Malignancy 5 7 (1-10) 5.6 (0-11.6) Pancreatitis 13 4 (0-7) 3.5 (1.3-5.8) Trauma 3 4 (0-10) 4.7 (0-17.2) General (vomiting, abdominal pain, other) 121 2 (0-5) 3.2 (2.6-3.9) G/U (pelvic pain, pregnancy, STD, GYN, pyelonephritis, nephrolithiasis, UTI) 92 2 (0-7) 3.6 (2.8-4.3) GI (diverticulitis, esophagus/stomach disorder, hernia, colitis, enteritis, IBG, GI hemorrhage, obstruction, appendicitis) 56 2 (0-5.5) 2.8 (1.9-3.7) Table 2 Hunger scores by diagnostic category There is no overall significant difference in hunger scores between diagnosis categories (Kruskal-Wallis, P value=.27).Abbreviations: CI, confidence interval; G/U, genitourinary; GYN, gynecology; IBS, irritable bowel syndrome; IQR, interquartile range (25th - 75th percentile; STD, sexually transmitted disease; UTI, urinary tract infection; GI, gastrointestinal.