Investigating the Impact of Demographic Variables and Body Mass Index in Irritable Bowel Syndrome Patients

Abstract

Background: Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a chronic gastrointestinal disorder affecting the lower gastrointestinal
tract. Objectives: This study aims to analyse the effect of demographic variables such as sex, age and relationship status
along with anthropometric variable such as body mass index (BMI) on IBS patients. Methods: This is a prospective
observational study in which 245 IBS patients were enrolled using Rome IV criteria from 16
th
July, 2022 to 15
July,
2023. Informed consent was taken from all the patients and they were classified based on the stool pattern. IBM-SPSS
Version 20 was used for data analysis. Results: In this study the males 161 (65.7%) outnumbered females 84 (34.3%) by
almost 2:1 ratio. The mean age of IBS patients was 34.25±11.30 years. Overall, there were 46.1% constipation predominant,
24.5%
diarrhoea
predominant,
15.5%
mixed
type
and
13.9%
unsubtyped
IBS
patients.
In
Central
North
Indian

region

youngsters (107, 43.7%) are more prone to irritable bowel syndrome and as the age increases the number of IBS
patients showed a reduction [
2
(3, 245) = 56.176; p<0.001]. Although positive associations were observed, there were no
significant correlations reported between sex, age group, relationship status and body mass index with reference to
different sub-types of IBS. Conclusion: The study concludes that majority of IBS patients were constipation predominant
young males who were married and had normal BMI. Although no significant association was found within the sub-types
of IBS, a more comprehensive study with a larger sample size will be more beneficial for generalization of results.