Epidemiology of constipation in São Paulo, Brazil: a population-based study

Abstract

Symptoms of constipation are prevalent in São Paulo, particularly among women. On the other hand, most survey respondents did not use medications or other remedies that manage this condition. These findings may point to an unmet gastrointestinal treatment need. Future research is needed to corroborate our findings in rural settings and to further evaluate potential predictors and consequences of constipation in South America.

Potentially Inappropriate Prescriptions for Anticholinergic Medications for Patients with Constipation

“…In this study, high blood pressure was the pathology most frequently found in patients with constipation (25.1%), slightly higher than that documented in Brazil (19.1%) [24]; in the USA and Finland, dementia was the most frequent pathology (42.9 and 69.5%, respectively) [18,20]. Hypothyroidism was found in 5.3% of the patients in this study, a result very similar to that found by Fosnes et al [15] in Norway (4.7%) but much lower than that reported by Phillips et al [18] in the USA (20.9%).…”

Complementary and alternative medicine use for constipation: a critical review focusing upon prevalence, type, cost, and users’ profile, perception and motivations

“…The methods and results of the final 35 articles were extracted and summarised adopting a critical integrative review method (33). Interestingly, only four studies specifically focus upon CAM use for people with constipation (34)(35)(36)(37), with the rest either reporting CAM use more generally (constipation was included as one among a number of conditions regarding CAM use) (38)(39)(40)(41)(42)(43)(44)(45)(46)(47)(48)(49)(50)(51)(52)(53)(54)(55)(56) or examining constipation care more generally (CAM was one of a number of treatment approaches to constipation care examined) (57)(58)(59)(60)(61)(62)(63)(64)(65)(66)(67)(68). The findings of all the studies included were grouped into four themes: user profile, prevalence and cost of CAM use, type of CAM use, and motivations for and perception of CAM use.…”

“…Six of the reviewed studies reported the characteristics of CAM users with constipation, and of these six studies, four employed a quantitative research design and reported upon patients with physician-confirmed constipation (36,57,58,61), while the other two reported qualitative research focused on patients with self-reported constipation (35,37). Both quantitative and qualitative studies show that constipation sufferers who use CAM are more likely to be female (35,36,57,61). A large national survey conducted in Taiwan (n = 152,564) found females with constipation were more likely to use traditional Chinese medicine than males with constipation (female:male = 3:1) (36).…”

Epidemiology of constipation in adults: Why estimates of prevalence differ

“…A systematic review of 10 studies conducted in Iranian adult populations showed that the prevalence of any constipation ranged from 1.4% to 37% and the prevalence of chronic constipation based on either Rome II or Rome III criteria ranged from 2.4% to 11.2%. [61] 4.1.5 South America Four studies, [24,53,62,63] have estimated prevalence in Brazil, Argentina and Colombia (see Table 2). In Brazil, prevalence ranged from 9.7% [62] when defined as <3BM/week to 14.6% [63] when using modified Rome III criteria to 16.7% for self-reported constipation.…”

“…[61] 4.1.5 South America Four studies, [24,53,62,63] have estimated prevalence in Brazil, Argentina and Colombia (see Table 2). In Brazil, prevalence ranged from 9.7% [62] when defined as <3BM/week to 14.6% [63] when using modified Rome III criteria to 16.7% for self-reported constipation. [24] 4.1.6 Australia Australia exemplifies the problem where a number of different studies in the same country have produced a wide range of prevalence estimates so it is difficult to determine the true prevalence (see Table 2).…”