The Prevalence Of Functional Constipation And Its Influential Factors In A Key Junior High School Students

Objective To investigate the prevalence of functional constipation and its related influential factors in junior high school students to help the etiology study of adolescent children and provide evidence for preventive measures establishment.Methods All the students from12classes of a key junior high school in Wenzhou City were enrolled as the research objectives. Rome Ⅲ functional constipation diagnosis criteria for children, internationally unified pediatric functional gastroenteropathy Rome Ⅲ Criteria Questionnaire (for age11～15group), and the Screen for Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorders(SCARED) were referred in self-created questionnaire formation. All the students were asked to fill the questionnaire by themselves and directed by unified-trained investigators. Totally575effective questionnaires were collected finally which included319from boys and256from girls. The diagnosis criteria of functional constipation followed the Rome Ⅲ criteria which was released in American Digestive Disease Week (DDW)2006.Results According to Rome Ⅲ criteria for functional constipation,231students were diagnosed as functional constipation among the total575junior high school students. The morbidity is40.17%which included135boys (59.0%) and96girls (41%). As far as the symptoms were concerned,25.1%students had decreased motivation(Iess than3times a week),35.5%students had difficulty in defection,11.7%students had hard lumps feces,27.4%students had non-complete defecation,4.7%students had fear before defection and3.5%students often used cathartics or laxatives to help defecation. There were65students (28.14%) often had involuntary belching and42students (18.18%) had bloating, both of that were obviously lower than that in the non-constipation students (45.35%,25.87%respectively)(P<0.05); There were23students (9.96%) often had abdominal pain and34students (14.72%) had postprandial nausea and vomiting. Compared with the non-constipation students, there were no obvious difference between the data (P>0.05). Logistic regression analysis was used to find that there were no obvious relationship between chronic constipation and nuclear family, the education level of parents, family monthly income, fear of vegetables, snack eating, the way of cooking and computer related entertainment. The influential factors were irregular breakfast taking, less daily drinking water, less exercise, exam jitter, bad relationship between parents and children and no housework involvement. The risk factors for functional constipation were less daily drinking water, exam jitter, bad relationship between parents and children and no housework involvement. And the important risk factors include less daily drinking water and bad relationship between parents and children.Conclusions Among the special key junior high school students, they had obviously higher morbidity of functional constipation. Unhealthy lifestyle and psychosocial stress are the risk factors. Reasonable diet behavior and various healthy lifestyles should be encouraged. More exercise, exam jitter relief, active communication and harmonious family relation construction will all help decrease the morbidity of functional constipation, improve life quality and guarantee good stamina.