Quality of life in children and adults with constipation

Abstract

This review summarises the literature on quality of life (QOL) assessments in both children and adults with functional constipation. Studies of adults with constipation include subjects from both tertiary care centres and population-based surveys whereas there are no population-based studies in children. The preponderance of evidence indicates that the adverse effects of chronic constipation on QOL in both children and adults are comparable to that seen in other chronic gastrointestinal and non-gastrointestinal disorders. There are no data on the effect of treatment of children with constipation with regard to QOL whereas several studies indicate that successful treatment of constipation in adults has a favourable effect on QOL. The emerging concept in the treatment of chronic constipation is to measure both objective measures such as frequency and ease of defecation and subjective parameters such as QOL.