PREVALENCE OF IRRITABLE BOWEL SYNDROME: A POPULATION BASED STUDY

Irritable bowel syndrome is a common functional gastro-intestinal disease.
Patients can experience symptoms for many years. These symptoms have significant impact on
patient’s quality of life. There is a little information about irritable bowel syndrome in Iran. The aim of
the present study was to determine the prevalence of irritable bowel syndrome by using the ROME III
criteria in the adult population of Tehran province.
Material & Methods: This study was a community-based cross-sectional survey that was conducted
on 18180 adult populations in the North and East or Tehran province from May 2006 to December
2007. Irritable bowel syndrome was diagnosed using a validated questionnaire based on the ROME III
criteria. Analysis was done by univariate methods and SPSS software.
Results: 15.3% of participants complained of gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms, while the prevalence of
irritable bowel syndrome was estimated to be 1.1%. Irritable bowel syndrome patients were more
likely to be married, and older. The most common presenting symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome
were abdominal pain that were relieved by defecation (94%), change in fecal consistency (78%), and
change in bowel frequency (70%). Constipation was predominant in 52% of irritable bowel syndrome
cases, diarrhea was predominant in 18%, and 8% experienced intermittent diarrhea and constipation.
Conclusion: According to these findings, the prevalence of irritable bowel syndrome is relatively low
in the Iranian adult population according to the ROME III criteria. The most probable reasons are the
specificity of ROME III criteria and the characteristic of population under study. According to this
experiment, this questionnaire based on ROME III criteria can be regarded more as a diagnostic tool
rather than a screening tool.