Study On Dietary Fiber Intervention For Constipation

Objective To investigate the improving effects of dietary fiber on the patients with constipation and explore the methods and experience of popular nutritional intervention in the community.Methods One hundred and twenty subjects with constipation were recruited voluntarily at two communities located Machang Rd in Hexi district, Tianjin; which have the same resident condition and similar income level. Cooperated with community committee and Epidemic center of Hexi, most residence got to understand our research; we gave lectures and consultation to the people who were going to join our study. Participants with one or more of the following symptoms were considered eligible: bowel movements less than three per week; stool infrequency with hardened feces; chronic constipation with no evidence of pathologic organ. Forty and Eighty eligible subjects were recruited at two communities respectively. The Ethic Committee at Tianjin CDC approved the study, and each participant gave written informed consent before inclusion into the study. Patients were screened and eliminated if they had any evidence of renal, liver or brain disease. Two patients in control group complained that it was too much trouble to keep diet record and diary of stool form and they dropped out the trial because of the absence of consecutive record. A total of 118 patients with aged range 30-60 years completed the study from February to May, 2004.Participants who were randomly assigned to experimental and control groups, taking dietary fiber supplement 3.5g/ day and identical placebo respectively for seven successive days. Three-day diet records, 7-day Bristol stool scale diary (straining, stool frequency, stool form) and blood samples were collected at the baseline and follow up examination.Results Intake of increasing dietary fiber could improve the stool frequency, relaxed the straining and stool form compared with baseline and placebo conditions. Significant effects were observed in this study. The mean of stool frequency increased by dietary fiber compared with the placebo treatment. A significant difference was observed (.P<0.01). Much improvement of straining with bowel movements was seen in the group of dietary fiber treatment (P<0.01). The difference of stool form in two groups was observed. (P<0.01); and no...