Prevalence of Symptoms of Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) in Students of Zabol University of Medical Sciences in 2013

Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a chronic functional disease of gasterointestinal system with nonspecific symptoms such as recurrent abdominal pain or discomfort associated with change in bowel habits (constipation¡ diarrhea or alternating periods of both) without any pathology in organs. According to previous studies prevalence of IBS varies among students.
The aim of this study is to assess the prevalence of IBS among medical students of Zabol University of Medical Sciences based on their educational status.
Materials and The study was performed on 106 students of the Medical University of Zabol in 1392 and samples were evaluated by questionnaire ROME III criteria and results were analyzed using SPSS21 software.
Of 106 cases 58.49% (62 cases) were male and 41.51% (44) were female. The mean age of students was 22.16 ± 0.04. The prevalence of IBS in students was 13.2%. Among them 54 cases were students in basic section period and 52 cases were students of advance section and the prevalence of the disease were 9.2% and 71.7%; respectively (P > 0.05). Non-native students had more prevalence of IBS (22.4%) than native students (5.2%) (P The prevalence of IBS was higher in our study comparing previous studies performed in Iran especially in non-native students. Further studies need to be performed longitudinally with larger sample to assess the exact prevalence and its related factors among student of different medical fields.