Family healthcare patterns as a proxy for transgenerational transmission of functional somatic symptoms in early childhood - A longitudinal cohort study

Objective: Functional somatic symptoms (FSS) accumulate within families. Exposure to family patterns of high healthcare use may induce maladaptive symptom coping and thereby potentially contribute to the trans- generational transmission of FSS. This study aimed to uncover associations between parental and child healthcare use during the child's first years of life (age 0-4) and childhood FSS at age 5-7. Methods: We utilized data from the Copenhagen Child Cohort (CCC2000), a population-based birth cohort. Parent-reported FSS of their 5-7-year-old children were linked to Danish national registry data on parental and child healthcare use (including general practitioner [GP] consultations and hospital contacts) during child age 0-4 years. Logistic regression analyses were performed to investigate longitudinal associations between family healthcare use and child FSS. Results: We found an association between prior parental healthcare use and child FSS at age 5-7 (OR OR = 1.02, 95% CI [1.01-1.04]). Key sensitivity analyses specifically focusing on GP consultations, revealed modest but statistically significant associations between parental (OR OR = 1.03, 95% CI [1.02-1.05]) and child (OR OR = 1.18, 95% CI [1.04-1.34]) GP consultations and impairing FSS at age 5-7. Conclusion: Family healthcare use, especially within the general practice, may play a role in the transgenerational transmission of FSS. Early-stage FSS identification and care might be improved through training aimed at GPs. Future research may identify vulnerable families at whom parent-focused interventions for symptom-coping could be targeted. This could potentially contribute to the prevention of transgenerational transmission of FSS.