జీర్ణకోశ & జీర్ణ వ్యవస్థ

నైరూప్య

Bowel Habit Pattern and Perception about Bowel Habit Pattern of Medical Students

Irin Perveen, Rukhsana Parvin, Madhusudan Saha, Md. Shafiqul Bari, Md. Saif Uddoula, Mridul Kanti Ghosh

Objectives: This study aimed at evaluating the bowel habit pattern of medical students along with their perception regarding their bowel habit. Materials and methods: In this observational study normal bowel habit was defined by both Western criteria (Rome III) and Asian diagnostic criteria. Results: Out of 249 (M = 155) students, 139 (55.8%) had predominantly Bristol type T4 stools, 51 (20.5%) had T3 stools, 18 (7.2%) had T5 stools, 23 (9.2%) had T 6/T7 stools and19 (7.6%) had T1/T2 stools. Weekly mean stool frequency was 9.09 ± 4.058(Male 9.6 vs. female 8.2, P = 0.016), with a range of 3- 28 motions/week. According to Western criteria 156 (62.65%, M = 101) had normal bowel habit, while by Asian criteria the figure was 109(43.8%). Predominant stool form in Western normal bowel habit group was T4 (n = 109, 69.9%); 34 (21.8%) had T3 stools. Mean stool frequency of normal bowel habit group (8.66/week) was different from constipation group (6.0/week, P = 0.004) but not from diarrhea group (9.38/week, P = 0.540). A total of 189 (75.9%) students perceived their bowel habit as normal, 17 as constipation, 2 as diarrhea and 12 as alternating diarrhea and constipation. Out of 156 students with normal bowel habit, 134 (85.9%) perceived their bowel habit as normal. A moderate agreement (K = 0.603, P < 0.0005) was found between western criteria and Asian criteria. Agreement between western normal bowel habit and students’ perception was poor (K = 0.61, P < 0.0005). Conclusion: Mean stool frequency of medical students was lower than some Asian countries but the predominant stool from was like most other countries. A wide mismatch was apparent between students’ perception of their bowel habit and Western criteria.