Probiotics and prebiotics in the treatment of functional constipation in the elderly individuals

Table 1 Summary of randomized clinical trials on probiotics in the treatment of functional constipation in the elderly individuals

Ref.	Country	Probiotic strain(s)	Inter-vention time	Study population	Outcomes
Ouwehand et al[37], 2002	Finland	Lactobacillus rhamnosus and Propionibacterium freudenreichii	4 weeks	Elderly subjects (n = 28)	Some relief from constipation may be observed with the combination of 2 probiotics
Ghafar et al[38], 2020	Malaysia	MCP® BCMC® strains	7 days	FC patients 60 years or older (n = 72)	Stool frequency and consistency were improved following the administration of probiotics
Ibrahim et al[39], 2020	Malaysia	MCP® BCMC® strains	8 weeks	Parkinson's disease patients with constipation (n = 48)	Probiotics improved bowel opening frequency and whole gut transit time in Parkinson's disease patients with constipation
Matsuura et al[36], 2021	Japan	Lactomin preparation	12 weeks	FC patients 65 years or older (n = 30)	There was a significant improvement when probiotics were administered
Šola et al[33], 2022	Croatia	Bifidobacterium animalis subsp. lactis BLC1, Lactobacillus acidophilus LA3 and Lactobacillus casei BGP93	12 weeks	60 participants aged 77.9 years ± 8.84 years with FC	Multistrain probiotics were shown to increase the frequency of bowel movements
Takeda et al[40], 2023	Japan	Bifidobacterium longum BB536	4 weeks	79 FC patients (mean age of 77.9 years)	Probiotic supplementation significantly improved bowel movements

FC: Functional constipation.