The 3P cross-sectional study: pain, posts, and poor sleep as predictors of functional abdominal pain in the digital generation.

This cross-sectional analytical study investigated the relationship between functional abdominal pain disorders (FAPD) in pediatric patients, sleep quality, and social media addiction, aiming to identify novel connections useful for clinical management. A total of 146 pediatric patients with FAPD and 95 healthy controls (ages 12-17) completed the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) and the Social Media Addiction Scale for Adolescents (SMASA). Statistical analyses included variance, correlation, ROC curve analysis, and principal component analysis (PCA) to identify key contributing factors and propose a new descriptive model. FAPD patients showed significantly poorer sleep quality than controls (PSQI median 7.0 vs 4.0; p < 0.001) and higher social media addiction (SMASA median 14.0 vs 12.0; p < 0.001). Moreover, a positive correlation was observed between PSQI scores and SMASA scores in the FAPD group (rho = 0.378; p-value < 0.001), indicating that poorer sleep quality was associated with higher levels of social media addiction among FAPD patients. Subjective sleep quality, sleep latency, and several SMASA items were significantly worse in the FAPD group. Based on these findings, a combined model using selected PSQI and SMASA parameters was developed into a novel scale ChARMS (Child and Adolescent Relationships of Media and Sleep) to better characterize FAPD. CONCLUSION: Adolescents with FAPD exhibit interconnected patterns of poor sleep and excessive social media use. These factors may exacerbate FAPD symptoms via gut-brain interactions. The ChARMS scale may offer a streamlined, clinically useful tool for assessing modifiable lifestyle factors contributing to FAPD, though further validation in larger cohorts is needed. WHAT IS KNOWN: • Functional abdominal pain disorders (FAPD) in adolescents are commonly associated with sleep disturbances and psychosocial factors. • Social media use has been linked to poor sleep quality and adverse mental health outcomes in youth. WHAT IS NEW: • This study demonstrates a significant association between FAPD, poor sleep quality (PSQI), and social media addiction (SMASA) in a unified model. • The newly proposed ChARMS scale provides a simplified, clinically applicable tool integrating sleep and social media parameters.