Food Item Avoidance of Patients with Irritable Bowel Syndrome Compared with Healthy People

To construct a dietary guideline for patients with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), data about foods these people exclude from their diet to improve their symptoms are necessary. This study was designed to assess the prevalence of food exclusions as well as the reasons for such exclusions in a large group of IBS patients.

In this cross-sectional study, data on 3846 Iranian adults, 828 of whom were patients with IBS, working in 50 different health centers were examined. A 106-item self-administered Dish-based Semi-quantitative Food Frequency Questionnaire (DSFFQ) which was designed and validated specifically for Iranian adults was used for assessing dietary intake. IBS was assessed using a modified Persian version of the Rome III questionnaire.

The whole prevalence of IBS was 21.5% (n = 828) in the total population (23.9% in women and 18.6% in men). Mean age of patients with IBS was 36.26 ± 7.91 years and for subjects without IBS, it was 36.52 ± 8.12 years. IBS patients had a greater probability to avoid consumption of ketchup (90% vs 33%, P = 0.005), Dough (100% vs 1%, P = 0.003), Gaz (50% vs. 1%, P = 0.035), grapes (33% vs. 7%, P = 0.034), fresh berries (56% vs. 14%, P = 0.036) and butter (100% vs. 60%, P = 0.02) due to gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms compared with healthy individuals. Although, the exclusion of plum (1% vs. 26%, P = 0.006), pickles (39% vs. 67%, P = 0.004), lemon juice (21% vs 35%, P = 0.027), egg (5% vs. 25%, P = 0.011), fresh fig (19% vs. 44%, P = 0.038) and cake (25% vs. 100%, P = 0.028) due to GI symptoms in IBS patients were lower than non-IBS participants.

The present study showed that IBS patients were more likely to avoid consumption of ketchup, Dough, Gaz, grapes, fresh berries and butter due to GI symptoms compared with healthy individuals. Further studies are required to confirm these findings.