Incidence of Constipation

Some interesting findings in a long term study regarding constipation recently published in Alimentary Pharmacology & Therapeutics: “Cumulative incidence of chronic constipation: a population-based study 1988–2003”. In this study, surveys were mailed to a random group of individuals in 1988 and again in 2003, with over 5500 responding to the first survey and close to 2300 responding to the second survey.

Over the course of the 12 years, the incidence of chronic constipation was just over 17 percent, or almost one out of every six people. That result was amazingly high to me! Gender issues emerged – in those who were under the age of 50 at the time of the first study, 9.2% of men vs. 18.3% of women suffered from chronic constipation. Those gender differences appear to lessen with age. In individuals who were over the age of 70 at the time of the first survey, chronic constipation was seen in 20.6% of men and 25.0% of women. Again, to me those numbers are astonishingly high!

If you fall into that one in six category and suffer from chronic constipation, see my article “Self Care for Constipation.”

_{Source:
Cumulative incidence of chronic constipation: a population-based study 1988–2003 (2007). Locke, G. et.al. Alimentary Pharmacology & Therapeutics , 26: 1521-1528.}