Use of Cluster Analysis to Identify Subtypes of Pediatric Functional Nausea

Objective: The aim of the study was to evaluate whether there are clinical subtypes in children with functional nausea based on comorbidities and responses to the Nausea Profile questionnaire. Methods: Patients from the Neurointestinal and Motility Program clinical registry at Lurie Children's Hospital were included if they met Rome IV criteria for functional nausea. Patients completed the Nausea Profile, a multidimensional measure of nausea with gastrointestinal, emotional, and somatic subscales. Comorbidities were assessed by chart review and self-report measures. Latent class analysis was used to identify patient groups based on comorbidities. To assess if model-identified groups were predictive of differences in nausea quality, Nausea Profile subscale means were compared between groups and used to predict group membership. Conversely, k-means analysis was used to divide the sample into groups based upon Nausea Profile subscale scores, to determine if identified groups had different comorbidities. Results: Seventy-two patients (n = 53 girls) with a mean age (±SD) 14.5 ± 2.9 were included. Two clinical subtypes were identified based on comorbidities, with responses on the emotional subscale of the Nausea Profile predicting group membership (P 
Source: Journal of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition - Category: Gastroenterology Tags: Original Articles: Gastroenterology Source Type: research