This study was part of a cross-sectional household survey conducted from May 2006 to December 2007 in Tehran province, Iran, which aimed to find the prevalence of gastrointestinal symptoms[20 21 ] and functional disorders[22 (link)–24 ] in Iranian community. A total of 18,180 adult persons drawn up randomly on the basis of the list of postal codes and random samples of these postal codes and their corresponding related address were drawn from the databank registry of Tehran central post office (approximately 5000 households selected and all members surveyed). These samples covered five cities including Tehran metropolitan, Damavand, Varamin, Firoozkouh, Pakdasht, and their rural constituencies. The sampled population was interviewed by trained health care workers at their own residence area. The research protocol was approved by the Ethics Committee of Research Center for Gastroenterology and Liver Diseases, Shaheed Beheshti Medical University, and all persons who participated in the study signed a consent form.
The questionnaire included two parts, with the first part containing data regarding personal and family characteristics (such as age, sex, educational level), which were recorded from every participant in the first place. In addition, participants were informed and asked about 11 gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms including abdominal pain/discomfort, constipation, diarrhea, bloating, heartburn/acid regurgitation, proctalgia, nausea/vomiting, fecal incontinence, bloody or black stool (melena), anorexia/weight loss, and difficulty of swallowing.
Participants who reported any of the above symptoms were referred for participating in the second interview by physicians in the vicinity. The second part of questionnaire consisted of questions about different gastrointestinal disorders, characterized on the basis of Rome III criteria.[4 (link)5 (link)] The section of Rome III criteria was standardized in Persian designed by a working group, translated from English to Persian.
The validity and reliability of the Persian questionnaire was tested in a pilot study on 400 participants from city of Damavand. For validity study, the language, content, concurrence, and construct validities were examined. The test-retest reliability was good and the Cronbach alpha coefficient values were above 0.7 for all major symptoms included in the tool. Minor corrections, however, were made regarding some symptoms.[22 (link)–24 ]
Some demographic and clinical variables including sex (male/female), age, marital status (single, married, widow), education, and body mass index (BMI), were included in the analysis. The response rate for the first and second interviews was more than 92%, respectively.
All statistical analysis carried out using SAS version 9.1 (SAS Institute Inc., Cary, NC, USA). Pearson’s chi-square, contingency tables and logistic regression were performed to test for independence between discrete variables. Continuous variables are presented as mean±standard deviation and other parameters as frequency and percentage. A P value of 0.05 or less was considered statistically significant and all reported P values were two sided.
The questionnaire included two parts, with the first part containing data regarding personal and family characteristics (such as age, sex, educational level), which were recorded from every participant in the first place. In addition, participants were informed and asked about 11 gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms including abdominal pain/discomfort, constipation, diarrhea, bloating, heartburn/acid regurgitation, proctalgia, nausea/vomiting, fecal incontinence, bloody or black stool (melena), anorexia/weight loss, and difficulty of swallowing.
Participants who reported any of the above symptoms were referred for participating in the second interview by physicians in the vicinity. The second part of questionnaire consisted of questions about different gastrointestinal disorders, characterized on the basis of Rome III criteria.[4 (link)5 (link)] The section of Rome III criteria was standardized in Persian designed by a working group, translated from English to Persian.
The validity and reliability of the Persian questionnaire was tested in a pilot study on 400 participants from city of Damavand. For validity study, the language, content, concurrence, and construct validities were examined. The test-retest reliability was good and the Cronbach alpha coefficient values were above 0.7 for all major symptoms included in the tool. Minor corrections, however, were made regarding some symptoms.[22 (link)–24 ]
Some demographic and clinical variables including sex (male/female), age, marital status (single, married, widow), education, and body mass index (BMI), were included in the analysis. The response rate for the first and second interviews was more than 92%, respectively.
All statistical analysis carried out using SAS version 9.1 (SAS Institute Inc., Cary, NC, USA). Pearson’s chi-square, contingency tables and logistic regression were performed to test for independence between discrete variables. Continuous variables are presented as mean±standard deviation and other parameters as frequency and percentage. A P value of 0.05 or less was considered statistically significant and all reported P values were two sided.
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