The Prevalence of Irritable Bowel Syndrome Symptoms Among High School Students in Abadan, Iran

Abstract

Background: Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) is the most commonly diagnosed gastrointestinal disease and is a common cause for referral to gastroenterologists and the second cause of absence from the workplace and school. Diagnosis is based on clinical manifestations and ruling out other diseases. Methods: This descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted on female high school students in Abadan, Iran in 2016. A randomized stratified sampling method was used to select the participants. A total of 1044 individuals were included. A two-part questionnaire was designed by the researcher composed of a demographic form and a part assessing IBS symptoms. Data was analyzed in SPSS V. 18 software using descriptive statistics. The P value less than 0.05 was considered as being statistically significant. Results: The age range of participants was 14-18 years with the Mean±SD age of 16±2 years. The findings of this study showed that the most common symptoms of IBS were abdominal pain (66.4%), diarrhea (46.7%), and constipation (42.5%). Conclusions: The symptoms of IBS are frequent among high school female students; therefore, there is a need for more attention to this issue.

Keywords

• irritable bowel syndrome
• children
• gastrointestinal disorders