Investigation Of Gastrointestinal Symptoms Among Patients With Diabetes Mellitus

Background:Diabetes mellitus is a metabolic disease with rapidly increasing prevalence in the world. Diabetes mellitus and complications have become a giant public health problem, causing great harm to the society and families. At present, diabetes mellitus and complications have been widely studied, but the researches on gastrointestinal lesions were scarce. Although some studies have found that gastrointestinal symptoms were common in diabetes mellitus and affected quality of life adversely, but the available epidemiological data related to the prevalence and the severity of gastrointestinal symptoms in diabetes mellitus were still conflicting. And the studies in Chinese population were really rare.Objective:To evaluate the prevalence of gastrointestinal symptoms among patients. with diabetes mellitus and the relationships between the severity of gastrointestinal symptoms and glycemic control, duration,sex and treatment, respectively. To evaluate the score of Gastrointestinal Symptom Rating Scale (GSRS) in the diabetic patients.Methods:Diabetic patients were chosen from out-patients and wards from December2012to July2013in four hospitals (The First People’s Hospital of Zhangjiagang, Suzhou Jiulong Hospital of Shanghai Jiao Tong University, The People’s Hospital of Taicang, The Branch Hospital of The Ninth People’s Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai Jiao Tong University). Totally305diabetic patients accepted the questionnaire to evaluate the general information and the severity of gastrointestinal symptoms. The questionnaire contains general information, clinical examinations and GSRS. All the data collected was entered into SPSS software, followed by statistical analysis on the relationship between the factors and GSRS score. Results:1. We totally collected305diabetic patients (Male191, Female114).The mean age was61.3±12.4years(Male),60.3±11.9years(female). The average duration of diabetes mellitus was ten years.No significant statistical differences exsited between male and female subjects in the terms of age,duration,glycosylated hemoglobin A1C and body mass,but not in waist circumference and the proportion of smoking and drinking.2. The average score of GSRS was4.25in all the patients.252diabetic patients (82.6%)suffered from one or more gastrointestinal symptoms, increased flatus, hard stools, abdominal distension were the most common symptoms, the incidence was40.3%,35.7%, and34.1%, respetively. And the more severe symptoms (the score higher than2points) included increased flatus, hard stools and the feeling of incomplete evacuation,the incidence was16.7%,15.7%,and11.1%,respectively.3. There was significant statistical difference between male and female subjects in the terms of the prevalence of gastrointestinal symptoms and GSRS score.4. GSRS score showed a positive trend with the increasing of HBAiC and duration of diabetes.There were no significant difference of GSRS score between the different treatments.Conclusions:Diabetes mellitus was associated with an increased prevalence of gastrointestinal symptoms. This may be linked with elevated glycosylated hemoglobin AiC, but not with duration of the disease or type of treatment of diabetes.Significant statistical differences existed between male and female subjects in terms of the prevalence of gastrointestinal symptoms and GSRS score, and female subjects were more than the male subjects who have gastrointestinal symptoms. GSRS can accurately evaluate gastrointestinal symptoms in patients with diabetes mellitus.