The relation between life quality and subtype of the disease in patients with irritable bowel syndrome

Abstract

Aim: Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is not a life-threatening condition; however, people with IBS have a low quality of life (QOL) that might affect their education, social and professional achievements. Many studies have shown that patients who have IBS have lower QOL compared to the general population together with patients who have chronic diseases. The relation between IBS subtype and QOL is still not clear. For this reason, our study aims to evaluate the relationship between subtypes of the disease and QOL in patients who have IBS. Material and Methods: The 100 patients with IBS and 100 healthy individuals who were aged from 18 to 65 years, were included in our study. The relationship between disease subtype and quality of life in IBS patients were analyzed. Results: Regarding quality of life between the groups in the examination; the overall health scores were lower at a significant level in the patients who had IBS subtype as predominant-constipation than those who had IBS subtypes as predominant-diarrhea and mixed type (p=0.013;p=0.045;p<0.05,respectively).The vitality scores were higher at a significant level in patients whose IBS subtypes were predominant-diarrhea than those who had the IBS subtype as predominant-constipation (p=0.007;p<0.01). There were no statistically significant differences between the IBS subtypes and other parameters(p>0.05). Conclusion: It was shown that the QOL of IBS patients were significantly lower than the healthy population, but some differences were also found between the disease subtypes. QOL measurement as part of future therapeutic trials in IBS will help ensure optimal treatment.