Introduction Conventionally, patients with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) are divided into subgroups based on their predominant stool pattern, either diarrhoea, constipation, or mixed stool form. However, factors other than gastrointestinal symptoms, such as psychological co-morbidities, are also highly relevant to IBS symptomatology. We explored alternative approaches to subgrouping people with IBS by incorporating factors beyond stool form alone. Methods We collected demographic, symptom, mood, and psychological health data from 1375 adult subjects in the UK community who self-identified as having IBS, and identified two cohorts meeting either the Rome III or the Rome IV diagnostic criteria. In each cohort, we performed latent class analysis, a method of cluster modelling, to identify specific subgroups (clusters) within the data. We used the Bayesian information criterion (BIC) to determine the preferred model;
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