Chronic gastrointestinal symptoms and quality of life in the Korean population

Table 2 Prevalence of chronic gastrointestinal symptoms, according to the Rome II criteria

	Respondent		Male	Female
	(n = 1417)		(n = 762)	(n = 655)
Chronic gastrointestinal symptoms	n	% (95% exact CI)	%	%
Globus	7	0.5 (0.2-1.0)	0.4	0.7
Chronic dysphagia	7	0.5 (0.2-1.0)	0.3	0.7
Rumination	0	0.0 (0.0-0.3)	0	0
Chronic chest pain	21	1.5 (0.9-2.3)	1.6	1.4
Chronic heartburn	24	1.7 (1.1-2.5)	1.8	1.6
Uninvestigated dyspepsia	166	11.7 (10.1-13.5)	10.8	12.8
IBS	31	2.2 (1.5-3.1)	1.8	2.6
IBS-D	13	0.9 (0.5-1.6)	1	0.8
IBS-C	12	0.8 (0.4-1.5)	0.1	1.7a
IBS-A	6	0.4 (0.2-0.9)	0.7	0.2
Chronic bloating	57	4.0 (3.1-5.2)	2.9	5.3
Chronic constipation	37	2.6 (1.8-3.6)	0.5	5.0a
Chronic diarrhea	11	0.8 (0.4-1.4)	0.8	0.8
Chronic incontinence	18	1.3 (0.8-2.0)	1.6	1.1

IBS: Irritable bowel syndrome; IBD-D: Diarrhea-predominant IBS; IBS-C: Constipation- predominant IBS; IBS-A: Alternating constipation and diarrhea IBS.

^aP < 0.05 (Fisher’s exact test) compared to male.