Evaluation of health related quality of life in irritable bowel syndrome patients

This cross sectional study included two hundred and fifty IBS patients with the mean age (± standard deviation) of 31.62 (± 11.93) years that were referred to outpatient gastroenterology clinic. IBS patients were diagnosed based on Rome-3 criteria by a gastroenterologist, and then they were categorized into three subtypes according to the predominant type of bowel habit. The "QOL specific for IBS", "Stait-trait anxiety inventory", and "Beck depression inventory-2" questioners were used to evaluate QOL, anxiety, and depression symptoms, respectively.The mean QOL scores in IBS mixed subtype (71.7 ± 25.57), constipation predominant subtype (80.28 ± 25.57), and diarrhea predominant subtype (76.43 ± 19.13) were not different. (P value: 0.05) In multivariate linear regression analysis, anxiety symptom scores were inversely correlated with QOL scores. [Standardized beta: -0.43, (95% confidence interval: -0.70, -0.39), P value: < 0.01]It seems reasonable to manage anxiety symptoms properly in IBS patients since this might increase their QOL.Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) is a common gastrointestinal disease [1]. It is associated with significant direct health-care costs and indirect costs related to impaired work productivity [2]. IBS patients are diagnosed based on Rome criteria and are categorized into different subtypes according to the predominant type of bowel habit [3].IBS seems to have a great impact on the health related quality of life (QOL) of the patients [4]. The use of health related QOL assessments have come to interest for better understanding of the biopsychosocial model in the functional gastrointestinal disorders [5].Controversy exists in results of previous studies about QOL in different IBS subtypes [6-11]. This finding might be related to differences in cultural (such as genetic, nutritional, and socio-demographical) and psychiatric co-morbidities (such as depression and generalized anxiety disorder) in the studied populations.It seems reasonable to det