The use of polyethylene glycol as a maintenance treatment of functional constipation in children living in Egypt

Egyptian Pediatric Association Gazette

Table 4 Comparison regarding drug effectiveness, tolerance, availability, dosing, and palatability between group 1 and group 2

	Group 1		Group 2		p-value
Number of patient who continued treatment after 16 weeks	7	17.5%	18	45%	0.015
Frequency of drug intake after 16 weeks
Daily	2	5%	8	20%	0.087
Twice weekly	2	5%	6	15%	0.263
Weekly	3	7.5%	4	10%	1.000
Number of patients that had impaction during treatment intake	0	0%	6	15%	0.025
Number of patients that decreased the dose of treatment after 16 weeks	5	12.5%	2	5%	0.432
Number of patients complained of palatability	30	75%	10	25%	0.000

Table 4 shows that there was a statistically significant decrease in the number of patients that needed to continue treatment in group 1 in comparison with group 2 with p-value = 0.015 and the number of patients that had impaction during treatment intake in group 1 with p-value = 0.025. However, there was a statistically significant increase in the number of patients who complained of palatability in group 1 with a p-value ≤ 0.001