Abdominal pain is a common complaint in children and can arise from a range of gastrointestinal and systemic conditions.
Chronic gastritis (44.68%) and acute gastroenteritis (31.32%) are the leading diagnoses among hospitalised children with abdominal pain, with periumbilical pain and nausea and/or vomiting being the most frequent clinical features.
Abdominal pain is a common complaint in children and can arise from a range of gastrointestinal and systemic conditions. Understanding its clinical presentation and associated symptoms is essential for diagnostic assessment. This study evaluated the clinical characteristics, underlying diagnoses, and associated symptoms of hospitalized children with abdominal pain and examined variations across patient subgroups.
Researchers conducted a hospital-based observational study using clinical data collected between January 2023 and January 2026 at a pediatric institution in China. The analysis included 1,025 children admitted with abdominal pain. Data on age, sex, body mass index (BMI), pain intensity, duration and location, associated symptoms, diagnoses, and surgical interventions were evaluated. Subgroup analyses examined differences according to disease type, pain intensity, sex, and age.
Chronic gastritis was the most common diagnosis, while acute pain, periumbilical pain, and vomiting were prominent clinical features. The key demographic, clinical, diagnostic, and evaluation findings are summarized below in Table 1.

Chronic gastritis and acute gastroenteritis constituted the most frequent diagnoses in this hospitalized pediatric cohort. Periumbilical pain and vomiting were common presenting features, while differences in pain characteristics and associated symptoms across subgroups reinforced the importance of individualized clinical assessment.
Yue M et al.
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