Source: Diabetes Care  |  Posted 9 years ago

Men with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) have significantly lower vitality scores and women with IBS have significantly lower mental health scores, research in Hong Kong indicates.

The scores were lower on the Short Form-36 (SF-36) scale used to measure quality of life in both IBS patients and normal controls, say investigators from the Chinese University of Hong King and the Prince of Wales Hospital in Shatin, New Territory.

They recruited 964 people living in public housing and 334 people living in private housing in Shatin for personal interviews. Structured questionnaires measured IBS prevalence among participants. Three IBS criteria - Manning, Rome I and Rome II - were included in the assessments.

ANCOVA covariance analysis was used to compare results. The researchers also examined medical records and data on absences from work.

They found "fair" agreement between the Manning and Rome II criteria (kappa = 0.23) but "good" agreement between Rome I and Rome II (kappa = 0.5), investigators say. Prevalence of IBS, based on Rome II criteria, was 3.6 percent among men and 3.8 percent among women.

The researchers concluded that IBS is quite prevalent in Hong Kong Chinese and that quality of life in IBS patients is significantly affected.

"Men with IBS had significantly lower vitality scores on the SF-36 than controls, and women with IBS had significantly lower mental health scores than controls," they point out.