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. 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. 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. 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.