Relationship Between Social Wellbeing and Social Comparison, and Symptom Severity in Patients With Irritable Bowel Syndrome

Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) is among the most critical psychosomatic disorders. Based on the biopsychosocial pattern, all biopsychosocial and behavioral factors that interact with each other should be examined to describe how this syndrome is developed. This is because none of these characteristics are individually sufficient to explain IBS in the affected patients. Social wellbeing was defined in 1948 by the World Health Organization as one of the several general variables of individual health. Social comparison processes also significantly impact psychological theories on how individuals interpret and perceive health risks, how and when to make decisions in search of physical symptom care, and how to cope with illnesses and serious disabilities. The current study aimed to examine the relationship between social wellbeing and social comparison, and the severity of symptoms in patients with IBS.

This was descriptive and correlational–predictive research in terms of design, and cross–sectional respecting time. The study statistical population included all patients with IBS who referred to a private hospital in the center of Tehran City, Iran, in the second half of 2019. The sample size was measured using G–power software, with the error rate of 0.01, the effect size of 0.15, and a power of 0.95 in regression equations equal to 180. Sampling was based on a non–probabilistic and convenience sampling method. Accordingly, after the expert’s approval through the Rome III evaluation, the sample group voluntarily completed the considered questionnaires. The study inclusion criteria included literacy, fluency in Persian, the age range of 18 to 55 years, no other serious biopsychological illnesses, not experiencing the early stages of diagnosis and treatment, being diagnosed with IBS by a colorectal specialist based on ROME III, the rule out of physical causes, and not receiving psychotherapy for IBS. The research exclusion criteria included unexplained weight loss, unexamined abnormal bleeding, and a family history of bowel cancer. Research instruments included the following: the Social Well–being Questionnaire (Keyes, 1998), the Social Comparison Questionnaire (Gibbons & Buunk, 1999), and the IBS–Symptom Severity Self–Report Scale (IBS–SSS) (Francis et al., 1997). Data analysis was performed in SPSS by Pearson Correlation and multiple linear regression analysis, as well as testing the prerequisite assumptions at the significance level of α=0.050.

The current research findings suggested a significant indirect correlation between the severity of symptoms of patients with IBS and social wellbeing variables (r=–0.323, p<0.001), and a significant direct association with social comparison (r=0.170, p=0.022). Social wellbeing and social comparison were entered in the multiple regression equation models. The related results indicated that only the social wellbeing variable was significant at the 5% error level in the model (p<0.001). The independent variable of social comparison did not significantly affect the dependent variable, and was removed from the model; thus, social wellbeing could explain 10.5% of the variance in symptoms in the explored patients. Besides, a change in a unit in social wellbeing could reduce the severity of symptoms in the investigated patients with IBS by 0.3.

The obtained data signified that moderate social wellbeing levels, and to a smaller extent, social comparison were associated with alternations in the severity of symptoms in patients with IBS. When individuals’ perceptions of the environment and their beliefs about their living conditions are modified, the severity of their IBS symptoms could be reduced.