Prevalence of growing pains in a general paediatric OPD: A descriptive, observational and cross-sectional study

CONTEXT: Growing pain (GP) is a common presentation in primary care settings. AIMS: To find out the prevalence of GP and to observe its characteristics and associations. SETTINGS AND DESIGN: General paediatric outpatient department (OPD). METHODS AND MATERIAL: Children coming to the general paediatric OPD of a tertiary centre in India between April 2019 and March 2020 for ‘chronic leg pains’ were screened with Peterson’s criteria. Patients with systemic illness were excluded. All received vitamin D and calcium supplementation. Patients with haemoglobin less than 11 gm% received additional 3 mg/kg iron supplementation. Then, patients were asked for follow-up. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS USED: Chi-square test. RESULTS: A total of 333 children were diagnosed as GP out of the total OPD attendance of 26750. The prevalence was 1.24% and 72.7% among the children with chronic leg pain. Highest prevalence was in winter (1.74%). The mean age of the patients was 7.88 years. The mean duration of symptoms was 10.92 months. After 3 months, 267 patients could be followed up. Seventy-two out of 107 (67.3%) children, who received iron became symptom-free. Only 43 (28.8%) patients became symptom-free out of 160, who received only calcium and vitamin D3 and did not receive iron. The difference was highly significant statistically (P < 0.0001). CONCLUSIONS: The prevalence of GP in the OPD was 1.24% and 72.7% among the children with chronic leg pain. Iron supplementation along with vitamin D3 and calcium was associated with faster resolution of the symptoms.