Are bowel symptoms and psychosocial features different in irritable bowel syndrome patients with abdominal discomfort compared to abdominal pain?

Table 1 Demographic data for irritable bowel syndrome patients with abdominal pain alone, abdominal discomfort alone, and abdominal pain & discomfort

Variable	Pain group (n = 233)	Discomfort group (n = 83)	Pain & discomfort group (n = 51)	P value
Male, %	117 (50.2)	56 (67.5)	32 (62.7)	0.012
Age in yr	43.7 ± 11.7	42.3 ± 10.6	40.8 ± 11.0	0.23
BMI in kg/m2	23.0 ± 4.0	22.8 ± 4.0	22.3 ± 3.8	0.56
Education level, college and above, %	71 (30.5)	29 (34.9)	13 (25.5)	0.51
Physical labor, %	135 (57.9)	42 (50.6)	34 (66.7)	0.18
Family economic status, well-off & above, %	105 (45.1)	44 (53.0)	18 (35.3)	0.13
Marriage status, married, %	201 (86.3)	71 (85.5)	41 (80.4)	0.56
IBS disease course in yr1	6.0 (7.5)	5.3 (7.0)	6.0 (7.0)	0.38
IBS type				0.06
IBS-D, %	95.7	96.4	86.3
IBS-C, %	3.0	2.4	7.8
IBS-M, %	1.3	1.2	5.9

¹Data presented as median (interquartile range), Kruskal-Wallis test. Note: P value is the difference among pain group, discomfort group, and pain & discomfort group, superscript letter is significantly different at a P < 0.05.

²The difference is between the pain group and discomfort group.

Data presented as number (%) or mean ± SD. Analysis of variance and χ² tests. IBS-D: Irritable bowel syndrome with diarrhea; BMI: Body mass index; IBS-C: Irritable bowel syndrome with constipation; IBS-M: Mixed irritable bowel syndrome.