Task: Answer Verification
Input (English): Question: Do pain symptoms and stooling patterns drive diagnostic costs for children with functional abdominal pain and irritable bowel syndrome in primary or tertiary care?
Answer: Despite the lack of difference in symptom characteristics between children in primary and tertiary care, a notable differential in cost of evaluation exists in accordance with level of care. Symptom characteristics do not seem to drive diagnostic evaluation in either primary or tertiary care. Given the lack of differences in child-reported symptoms and the maternal perspective that children evaluated by a gastroenterologist had more severe pain, we speculate that parent perception of child symptoms may be a primary factor in seeking tertiary care.
Output (English): no