Epidemiological Characteristics And Influencing Factors Of Constipation And Chronic Constipation Among College Students In Guangzhou

ObjectiveThis paper was to explore the prevalence of constipation and chronic constipation(CC)among college students in Guangzhou through questionnaires,and analyze the prevalence of constipation among college students in Guangzhou College Town.Another aim was to explore the influencing factors of constipation and chronic constipation;including eating habits,life,defecation habits,mental and psychological factors,and traditional Chinese medicine constitution.It provides relevant information to prevent the constipation and chronic constipation of the college students.MethodsThe time is from July 2017 to January 2018.The subjects are undergraduate students in Guangzhou college town,who signed informed consent and voluntarily participated in the questionnaire survey.The stratified cluster random sampling method was adopted to study,and 10 universities in Guangzhou College Town were included in the study.From which,the universities was taken as the class-Ⅰ unit,and four universities were selected;the institute was taken as the class-Ⅱ unit,and 1-2 institutes were selected each;and then the class was taken as class-Ⅲ unit,and several classes were selected each.Then,the included subjects were required to filled in a questionnaire.The questionnaire contained gender,age,diet,sleep,exercise time,defecation habits,whether they smoke,stay late or not,the history of hemorrhoids,and the past defecation of the respondents.Among them,the constitution of traditional Chinese medicine adopted Wang Qi’s TCM constitution scale.Rome III was used as the diagnostic criteria for constipation and chronic constipation.Calculate the prevalence of constipation and chronic constipation among different demographic characteristics.Logistic regression analysis was used to explore the influencing factors of constipation and chronic constipation.ResultsA total of 1492 college students were included.Among them,93 patients were diagnosed with constipation,and 26 patients were diagnosed with chronic constipation according to Rome Standard Ⅲ.The prevalence rate of constipation and chronic constipation were 6.23%and 1.74%,respectively.The prevalence of constipation and chronic constipation in female is slightly higher than that in male,but there is no statistical significance(P=0.353;P=0.062).Influencing factors for constipationAccording to the results of univariate logistic regression analysis,risk factors contained sit still(OR=1.68,95%CI=1.08-2.62,P=0.022),have a history of difficulty in defecation(OR=8.20,95%CI=5.23-12.91,P<0.001),inhibit defecation(OR=2.43,95%CI=1.44-4.11,P=0.001),bad defecation habit(OR=4.43,95%CI=2.88-6.81,P<0.001),history of hemorrhoids(OR=4.293,95%CI=2.52-7.30,P<0.001),anxiety(OR=10.53,95%CI=5.94-18.66,P<0.001),and yin deficiency(P<0.001).For yin deficiency,compared with "no" yin deficiency constitution,yin deficiency constitution "(OR=1.99,95%CI:1.06-3.72,P=0.032)and "tendency" yin deficiency constitution(OR=4.67,95%CI:2.89-7.54,P<0.001)were risk factors.Compared with "no" damp heat constitution,damp heat constitution(OR=4.60,95%CI=2.62-8.06,P<0.001)and"tendency" damp heat constitution(OR=5.04,the 95%CI=3.07-8.27,P<0.001)were risk factors.Medicine specialty(OR=0.48,95%CI=0.30-0.78,P=0.003)and coarse grains(OR=0.49,95%CI=0.28-0.87,P=0.015)were protective factors of constipation.Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that:history of defecation difficulty(OR=4.87,95%CI=2.89-8.23,P<0.001),bad defecation habit(OR=3.98,95%CI=2.44-6.47,P<0.001),and history of hemorrhoids(OR=4.07,95%CI=1.18-4.08,P=0.013),anxiety(OR=4.07,95%CI=2.03-8.16,P<0.001),and damp heat constitution(P=0.009)were the risk factor of constipation.Compared with "no" damp heat constitution,damp heat constitution(OR=2.42,95%CI=1.27-4.61,P=0.007)and "tendency" damp heat constitution(OR=2.17,the 95%CI=1.21-3.89,P=0.009)were risk factors.Medicine specialty(OR=0.58,95%CI=0.34-0.97,P=0.038)was the protective factor of constipation.Influencing factors for chronic constipationAccording to the results of univariate logistic regression analysis,risk factors of chronic constipation contained sit still(OR=4.58,95%CI=1.57-13.35,P=0.005),inhibit defecation(OR=14.24,95%CI=1.92-105.39,P=0.009),bad defecation habit(OR=8.64,95%CI=3.81-19.60,P<0.001),history of hemorrhoids(OR=3.09,95%Cl =1.14-8.35,P=0.026),anxiety(OR=41.17,95%CI=17.94-94.47,P<0.001),and yin deficiency(P<0.001).For yin deficiency,compared with "no" yin deficiency constitution,yin deficiency constitution "(OR=8.88,95%CI=1.71-46.02,P=0.009)and "tendency"yin deficiency constitution(OR=25.22,95%CI=5.84-108.86,P<0.001)were risk factors.Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that sit still(OR=5.99,95%CI=1.68-21.33,P=0.006),bad defecation habit(OR=5.54,95%CI=2.07-14.84,P=0.001),anxiety(OR=30.56,95%CI=10.63-87.84,P<0.001),and yin deficiency(P=0.001)were risk factor of chronic constipation.For yin deficiency,compared with "no" yin deficiency constitution,yin deficiency constitution "(OR=9.40,95%CI=1.63-54.16,P=0.012)and "tendency" yin deficiency constitution(OR=18.35,95%CI=3.81-88.34,P<0.001)were risk factors.Medicine specialty(OR=0.07,95%CI=0.01-0.40,P=0.002)and coarse grains(OR=0.29,95%CI=0.09-0.94,P=0.039)were the protective factors of chronic constipation.ConclusionThe prevalence of constipation among college students in Guangzhou University City is higher than Prevalence of functional constipation in Guangzhou,but lower than that among most college students.The prevalence of chronic constipation is lower than that of the general population in China,and also lower than that of the college students studied by Zhao Li.Risk factors of constipation included dysdefecation history,bad defecation habits,history of hemorrhoids,anxiety and damp heat constitution.The protective factors of constipation included medicine majors.Risk factors of chronic constipation included sedentary,bad defecation habits,anxiety and yin deficiency constitution.Protective factors of chronic constipation included medicine and coarse grains.In order to effectively prevent constipation and chronic constipation,college students should:(1)reduce sedentary time;(2)eat more coarse grains;(3)do not restrain defecation,do not play with mobile phones in the toilet to read newspapers,and develop a good habit of defecation;(4)have hemorrhoids medicine to treat hemorrhoids in time;(5)positive psychological adjustment to avoid anxiety caused by constipation;(6)college students with yin deficiency constitution and damp heat constitution should have a medicated diet and adjust our living habits.