Outcome variables
| VARIABLE | DESCRIPTION |
|---|---|
| First outcome: symptom pathways* | |
| • Pathway 1 | Symptom remains with no diagnosis: the abdominal symptom was not classifiable into a known diagnostic category and persisted as a continued RFE |
| • Pathway 2 | Diagnosis† made and symptom persists: a symptom was placed in a diagnostic category but it continued as an RFE at subsequent visits until there was a washout period of 6 mo with no visits for the symptom |
| • Pathway 3 | Diagnosis made, and no further visits for the symptom: a diagnosis was made after which there were no further visits with that symptom as the RFE |
| Second outcome: length of symptom episode, mo | No. of mo between the first and last visits for the symptom Patients with only 1 visit for a symptom had 0 mo with the symptom. A symptom episode was defined as the time between the first presentation of the symptom until it was no longer an RFE |
| Third outcome: no. of visits during a symptom episode | No. of visits between the first and last visits for the symptom as an RFE |
RFE—reason for encounter.
↵* See Appendix A (available from CFPlus*) for details of the classification process to result in the 3 pathways.
↵† For the 3 abdominal pain subtypes, if a diagnosis was coded at the end of the visit it was categorized by 2 clinician investigators (T.R.F., D.L.) as either being relevant to the abdominal pain subtype or not. Both clinicians coded the list of end-of-visit codes separately, and then came to an agreement through discussion.