Pattern of irritable bowel syndrome and its impact on quality of life: A tertiary hospital based study from Kolkata on newly diagnosed patients of irritable bowel syndrome attending general medical outpatient department

Background and Aims: Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a highly prevalent functional gastrointestinal disorder long considered a diagnosis of exclusion. It is associated with decreased quality of life and significant economic burden to both the individual patient and society. To the best of our knowledge, this was the first study from this part of India assessing the relative impact on quality of life with respect to subtype of IBS. Subjects and Methods: The study was conducted between December 2011 and December 2013 among 1000 IBS patients attending general medical outpatient department of a tertiary care hospital in Kolkata (West Bengal, India). The Rome III criterion was used for diagnosis of IBS. IBS was further classified as diarrhea predominant (IBS-D), constipation-predominant (IBS-C) and mixed variety (IBS-M). This was a prospective, observational, cross-sectional study to assess the demographic and socioeconomic parameters, and impact of IBS on the quality of life of the patients by using short form-36 (SF-36) questionnaire. Results: The study found that IBS-D (67.6%) was the most common type, followed by IBS-M (30.4%) and IBS-C (2%). The majority of patients were males (59.2%). Overall none of the demographic and socioeconomic parameters analyzed in the study was found to have any significant bearing on the subtype of IBS affecting them. Eight scales of the SF-36 questionnaire were individually analyzed and correlated with the different subtypes of IBS. IBS-D group had the worst scores while IBS-M had the best score of quality of life. The difference between IBS-D and IBS-M was found to be statistically significant (P < 0.001) on every aspect. Conclusions: The study highlights that IBS is a bio-psychosocial disorder with poor quality of life. Most of the patients of IBS reporting to physicians have IBS-D. The socioeconomic and demographic factors do not appear to be significant determinants in this condition. IBS-D causes worst impact on quality of living among all subtypes.