TY - JOUR T1 - Incidence of ‘new-onset’ constipation and associated factors during lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic JF - BMJ Open Gastroenterology JO - BMJ Open Gastro DO - 10.1136/bmjgast-2021-000729 VL - 8 IS - 1 SP - e000729 AU - Jose Maria Remes-Troche AU - Enrique Coss-Adame AU - Mercedes Amieva-Balmori AU - José Antonio Velarde-Ruiz Velasco AU - Paulo César Gómez-Castaños AU - Ricardo Flores-Rendón AU - Octavio Gómez-Escudero AU - María Celina Rodríguez-Leal AU - Cristina Durán-Rosas AU - Samanta Mayanin Pinto-Gálvez AU - Bryan Adrián Priego-Parra AU - Arturo Triana-Romero Y1 - 2021/09/01 UR - http://bmjopengastro.bmj.com//content/8/1/e000729.abstract N2 - Objective A minimum of physical activity and low liquid intake are factors that have been associated with constipation. The health emergency brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in adopting behaviour, such as sheltering-in-place (less mobility) and dietary changes, creating a scenario we believe to be an adequate model for examining the appearance of symptoms of constipation and its associated factors.Design A cross-sectional and descriptive study was conducted on an open population, applying an electronic survey (4 weeks after lockdown due to COVID-19 in Mexico) to evaluate demographic characteristics, physical activity, water and fibre intake, appearance of constipation symptoms (including stool consistency), and quality of life.Results Out of 678 subjects evaluated, 170 (25%, 95% CI: 21.7 to 28.4) developed symptoms of ‘new-onset’ constipation, with a significant decrease in the number of daily bowel movements (p<0.05) and stool consistency (p<0.05) during lockdown. Furthermore, in the ‘new-onset’ constipation population there was a higher proportion of subjects (79 (47%) of 170) who stopped exercising during the pandemic compared with the subjects who did not develop constipation symptoms (187 (37%) of 508, p=0.03, OR: 1.49, 95% CI: 1.0 to 2.1). The multivariate analysis (logistic regression) showed that female sex (p=0.001), water intake (p=0.039), and physical activity (p=0.012) were associated with ‘new-onset’ constipation.Conclusions In our study on an open population in Mexico, we found that one-fourth of the population developed ‘new-onset’ constipation symptoms during the lockdown imposed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. A reduction of physical activity and less water consumption were associated factors.Data are available upon reasonable request. Data are available upon request. ER -