Abstract

VILLALOBOS B, Jaireline Y; DE ANDRADE, Yuraima P  and  CARREIRO, Manuel. Evaluation of bowel habits in a population of hospital staff. Gen [online]. 2012, vol.66, n.4, pp.228-236. ISSN 0016-3503.

Introduction: Bowel function and related disorders are common consulting problems. Because in Venezuela we lack of adequate information to define both bowel normal habit and the frequency of its alterations in our population we decided to perform this study. Objective: To assess bowel function of the “Dr. Domingo Luciani” hospital staff between April and September of 2008. Method: In a descriptive and transversal study, we apply a personalized survey to all the hospital staff who participated. Results: 507 hospital staff members were studied. 380 females (75 %) /127 males (25 %). The average age was 39,2 ±10 years. The 51,1% have an universitary degree, and less than half used medications or suffer diseases. Most of them were no smokers and drink less than 2 liters of water per day. The 73,4 % of the subjects passed a stool on a daily basis, in the morning with feces type 3. 12 patients (2,36 %) had constipation according to Roma III criteria. In those subjects predominant symptoms were: dyspepsia, abdominal pain and bloating, pain during evacuation and incomplete evacuation sensation. All had a type I stool pattern and the 41,66 % used laxatives regularly. The 50 % exhibit some degree of quality of life impairment. Average age in this group was 39 years, female sex, nurses and Higher University Technicians (p=0, 03). They drink less than 2 liters of water/day, sometimes consume fruits and cereals and do very little exercise. Conclusions: Normal bowel habits of our population were characterized by a type 3 or 4 stool passed on a daily basis, without pain, effort o incomplete evacuation sensation.

Keywords : Bowel habit; Constipation; Colon physiology; Bristol Scale.