Article Text
Abstract
Mechanisms explaining observed associations between diarrhoea and obesity or increased body mass index (BMI) are unclear.
Objective To assess associations of bowel patterns with BMI, metabolic syndrome (MS), non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and other obesity-related disorders.
Design We performed a cross-sectional analysis of data from adults who completed bowel health questions for the 2005 to 2010 cycles of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys. Relationships were examined using multinomial logistic regression. Confounding effects of demographics, smoking, alcohol and BMI were examined by sequential modelling.
Results Among 13 413 adults, weighted prevalence rates of constipation and diarrhoea were 8.9% and 6.6%, respectively. Mean BMI was associated with bowel patterns (p<0.001), and was higher with diarrhoea (30.3 kg/m2) versus normal bowel patterns (28.6 kg/m2) and with diarrhoea versus constipation (27.8 kg/m2). NAFLD was more prevalent (ORs, 95% CI) in diarrhoea versus normal bowel patterns (OR=1.34, 95% CI 1.01 to 1.78) or constipation (OR=1.45, 95% CI 1.03, 2.03) in adjusted analyses. The higher prevalence of MS in diarrhoea versus constipation (OR=1.27, 95% CI 0.97 to 1.67) was not independent of BMI.
Conclusions These findings suggest an association between diarrhoea and NAFLD that is independent of BMI.
- obesity
- diarrhoea
- fatty liver
- constipation
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Footnotes
Contributors AS: conceptual development, study design, data interpretation, drafting and review of manuscript. HX: study design, statistical analysis, drafting and review of manuscript. TFI: data interpretation, drafting and review of manuscript.
Funding statement AS is supported, in part, by the Board of Directors of the Indiana University Health Values Fund for Research Award and the Indiana Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute funded, in part by Grant # UL1TR002529 from the NIH, NCATS, CTSA.
Competing interests None declared.
Patient consent for publication Signed consent was obtained from all participants of The National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys Program.
Ethics approval The protocol for NHANES 2005 through 2010 was approved on 18 March 2005 and annually thereafter by the National Center for Health Statistics research ethics review board in accordance with federal regulations (45 CFR 46.111) and ethical guidelines of the Declaration of Helsinki.
Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.
Data availability statement Data are available in a public, open access repository.