title: Impact of demographic factors on gastrointestinal symptoms using population pyramid.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Gastrointestinal diseases are maladies that produce multiple symptoms. Suffering from these symptoms attributes people to an illness and self-treat or seek medical care. The objective of this study is to determine the relation between gastrointestinal symptoms and demographic factors using population pyramid.
  
  
  METHODS
  This study was a cross-sectional survey conducted from May 2006 to December 2007 Tehran province, Iran. The questionnaire included personal and family characteristics such as age, gender, and educational level. In addition to this, interviewers asked about 10 GI symptoms. Comparison prevalence of GI symptoms among age groups was made via population pyramid. All analysis carried out using SPSS version 16.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A total of 30,334 subjects were included in the study. The prevalence of GI symptoms increased with increasing age. Moreover, women had higher prevalence of symptoms and the GI symptoms were more prevalent in married individuals than single one.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Age is dynamic in the sense that individuals continually age. It is the timing and sequencing of such changes that could be incorporated into analyses of health. So age pyramid is a flexible way to evaluate the effect of this factor on health in population.
authors.affiliation: Department of Statistics, Allameh Tabatabaii University, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Aida
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Yazdanparast
authors.forename: Mohamad Amin
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Pourhoseingholi
authors.forename: Asma
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Pourhoseingholi
mesh_terms: D017677:Age Distribution; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003710:Demography; D005191:Family Characteristics; D005260:Female; D005767:Gastrointestinal Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology*; D006801:Humans; D007492:Iran / Q000453:epidemiology; D015995:Prevalence; D017678:Sex Distribution; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires