Healthy lifestyle score and irritable bowel syndrome: A cross‐sectional study in adults

Abstract

Background: Lifestyle modifications play an important role in the management of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), but there is limited information on any associations of combined lifestyle-related factors with IBS in Middle Eastern populations. We, therefore, assessed the associations of a "lifestyle score," in analogy to lifestyle scores applied in studies of other disorders, with IBS in adults. Methods:In a cross-sectional study on 3363 Iranian adults, a healthy lifestyle score (HLS) was constructed using information about dietary habits, dietary intake, physical activity, smoking status, and psychological distress, which was collected using validated questionnaires. A modified version of the Rome III questionnaire (in Persian) was used to diagnose IBS and its subtypes.Key Results: Individuals with the highest HLS had a 65% lower odds of having IBS compared with those in the lowest category (OR: 0.35; 95% CI: 0.26-0.48).Participants with healthy dietary habits, including regular meal pattern, slow/moderate eating rate, moderate intra-meal fluid consumption, moderate/long meal-to-sleep interval, and low/moderate consumption of fatty foods, had significantly lower odds of having IBS compared with those with unhealthy dietary habits (OR: 0.81; 95% CI: 0.69-0.96). Moreover, individuals with lower levels of psychological distress, compared with those with higher levels of distress, had significantly lower odds of IBS (OR: 0.49; 95% CI: 0.40-0.60). Conclusions and Inferences:Our data suggest that having an overall "healthy lifestyle" is related to substantially reduced odds of IBS, suggesting that adhering to a healthy lifestyle pattern, including dietary habits, diet quality, physical activity, smoking, and psychological distress, can be considered as a key management strategy for IBS. K E Y W O R D Sdietary habit, dietary intake, physical activity, psychological distress, smoking

Association of anxiety-depressive disorders with irritable bowel syndrome among patients attending a rural family practice center: a comparative cross-sectional study

“…22 Regarding dietary habits, this study showed significant differences in time spent eating, picky eating habits and having irregular meals between the IBS group and the non-IBS group, which is in agreement with the findings of Hajishafiee et al, who showed subjects with IBS had irregular meal patterns, fast eating rates, and high intakes of fatty and spicy foods and caffeinated beverages and consumed fewer fruits and vegetables than healthy people. 23 This study showed statistically significant differences between both groups with regard to depression (p<0.05). Mild, moderate and severe depression were reported in 60.0%, 14.3% and 25.7% of patients with IBS, whereas most (82.9%) of the non-IBS participants reported mild depression.…”

“… 22 Regarding dietary habits, this study showed significant differences in time spent eating, picky eating habits and having irregular meals between the IBS group and the non-IBS group, which is in agreement with the findings of Hajishafiee et al, who showed subjects with IBS had irregular meal patterns, fast eating rates, and high intakes of fatty and spicy foods and caffeinated beverages and consumed fewer fruits and vegetables than healthy people. 23 …”

Combined Healthy Lifestyle Is Inversely Associated with Upper Gastrointestinal Disorders among Iranian Adults

“…Previous investigations have reported that healthy lifestyle score was related to mortality, diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases [39-41]. In addition, we have previously reported the relationship between healthy lifestyle score and depression, anxiety, and irritable bowel syndrome [42, 43].…”

The Antecedents and Consequences of E-Health Literacy in the Pharmaceutical Industry: An Agenda for Future Research

“…For instance, a healthy lifestyle comprises exercising, controlling diet, modifying bedtime habits, controlling weight, and regular eating of fruits and vegetables among others [50]. The surfacing of e-health technologies provides extremely reachable and low-cost information to encourage healthy habits among patients [51]. Since many countries have developed numerous e-health intervention programs to aid citizens to avoid unhealthy behavior such as smoking and intervention programs to monitor and treat various pandemic such as COVID 19.…”