Prevalence of irritable bowel syndrome among undergraduates in Southeast China

There is a wide range in reported prevalence of irritable bowel syndrome worldwide. From the data appeared recently in medical literatures in China, it seems that the incidence of irritable bowel syndrome in young adults is not dissimilar to the one in the Western countries.

To explore the prevalence and epidemiological variations of irritable bowel syndrome in an undergraduate student population in Southeast China on the basis of the Rome II and Rome III criteria.

All the undergraduate student participants were administered self-report diagnostic measures for irritable bowel syndrome.

The sex-adjusted prevalence rate of irritable bowel syndrome was 4.7% (Rome II) and 10.4% (Rome III), respectively. When we combined irritable bowel syndrome mixed and irritable bowel syndrome unsubtyped in the Rome III subgroups into one group considering the counterpart in the Rome II subgroups was alternative irritable bowel syndrome, the agreement between the two ways to subdivide these 54 patients who were identified with irritable bowel syndrome by both the two criteria was 81%, with a kappa value of 0.67. By the Rome III criteria, we found a female predominance which was especially attributed to the subtypes of irritable bowel syndrome with constipation and unsubtyped.

Our study suggests that, in young adults in Southeast China, changing diagnostic criteria for irritable bowel syndrome from Rome II to Rome III may affect women more than men on not only the overall prevalence rate but also the sex-difference present or not, especially in irritable bowel syndrome with constipation and irritable bowel syndrome unsubtyped subgroups.