Prevalence and health-care seeking pattern of patients with functional diarrhoea in an urban community of Bangladesh

Abstract

Continuous or recurrent passage of loose (mushy) or watery stools without pain constitutes functional diarrhea (FD). This study aimed to find out the prevalence of functional diarrhea and health care seeking pattern in an urban community of Bangladesh. In this population-based cross-sectional survey 1503 (>/=15 years) subjects from an urban community were personally interviewed in a home setting using a valid questionnaire based on internationally accepted Rome II criteria. For this study, FD was defined as passage of loose or mushy or watery stools more than a quarter (25%) of time without abdominal pain in the last one-year. Significance value was assessed using Chi-squared test and the level of significance was denoted as P value of 0.05 or less. A response rate of 97.2% yielded 1503 questionnaires for analysis. Forty-four subjects were excluded from the study for various illness and denial to participate in the study. A lower prevalence of FD (3.7%) was found in our study population in comparison to irritable bowel syndrome (7.7%) by Rome II definition. Prevalence was found more in males than females (4.4% vs.3.3%) and in the 45-54 years' group. Approximately 26(47.3%) FD subjects consulted a physician in the past one-year with a slightly higher rate of women consulters (57.7%) (P=0.181). The main predictor for health care seeking was presence of multiple symptoms. The prevalence of FD is low in our community in comparison to irritable bowel syndrome. A good number of FD patients do not seek medical care for their illness.