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68 Chapter 2 most studies demonstrating an association between functional constipation and excessive bodyweight have been performed in hospital settings. Two other population-based studies were also unable to demonstrate an association between functional constipation and excessive bodyweight in children 21,22 , which suggests that children in hospital settings may not reflect the general population well enough to generalize those findings. Our results contradict thehypothesis that functional constipation is associatedwithexcessive bodyweight in children. In contrast, our results show that in the Pacific region, where the prevalence of functional constipation was the lowest, the prevalences of overweight and obesity were the highest compared with the other regions, and vice versa, in the Amazon, the region with the lowest prevalence of obesity and the second-lowest prevalence of overweight, the prevalence of functional constipation was the highest. Furthermore, the prevalences of both functional constipation and excessive bodyweight varied strongly between regions. These differences between regions could be caused by dietary, cultural, and socioeconomic factors between the regions. However, the current study was designed to assess the association between bodyweight and functional constipation and did not take into account additional information to assess these differences between regions in more detail. The prevalence of functional constipation was higher in school children (8-12 years of age) compared with adolescents (13-18 years of age). This may be due to the natural course of functional constipation; symptoms may resolve with age or children may have received treatment for their symptoms, resulting in a lower prevalence in adolescents. Similar to the results found for functional constipation, there was also a significant age difference between normal weight, overweight, and obese children; children who were overweight or obese were significantly younger than normal weight children. Possibly, adolescents are better capable of recognizing and addressing their weight problem or age differences may be the effect of treatment over time, as with functional constipation. In Colombia, most children attend free public schools and only a minority of children attend more expensive private schools. Our results show that children attending private school suffered from functional constipation, overweight, and obesity significantly more often compared with children attending public schools. These results may have been influenced by age because children in private school were significantly younger than children in public school. Another explanation could be that functional constipation, overweight, and obesity are more common in this population because of lifestyle factors such as a Western diet with low fiber and a sedentary lifestyle, which are likely to be more common in more affluent families. An association between functional constipation and these factors has been suggested in the literature 22–24 , although it has been disputed as well. 25 On the