Investigation of the effect of military stress on the prevalence of functional bowel disorders.
OBJECTIVE
To investigate the morbidity of functional bowel disorders (FBD) under military stress conditions in order to lay foundations for the prevention and treatment of this disease.


METHODS
Four hundred and fifty-seven soldiers who were assigned to specified services and 471 soldiers who were assigned to routine services were enrolled using cluster sampling, with the latter as a control group. They were surveyed using the Rome III FBD standard questionnaire. The FBD symptom questionnaire included FBD-related symptoms, severity, duration or attack time, and accompanying symptoms.


RESULTS
The morbidity of the military stress group (14.6%) was significantly higher than in the control group (9.98%) (χ² = 4.585, P < 0.05). The incidence of smoking, abdominal pain and acid regurgitation (χ² = 4.761, P < 0.05) as well as the ZUNG anxiety/depression scores (χ² = 7.982, P < 0.01) were also significantly higher in the military stress group compared with the control group. ZUNG anxiety (χ² = 11.523, P < 0.01) and depression (χ² = 5.149, P < 0.05) scores were higher in the FBD group compared with the non-FBD group. The differences in the ZUNG self-rated anxiety and depression scales between the 2 groups were statistically significant (χ² = 14.482, P < 0.01 and χ² = 6.176, P < 0.05).


CONCLUSIONS
The morbidity of FBD was higher under military stress conditions.
Department of Gastroenterology, General Hospital of Chinese People's Armed Police Forces, Beijing 100039, China.
Xian-Zhao
XZ
Yu
Hai-Feng
HF
Liu
Zhen-Xue
ZX
Sun
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001007:Anxiety / Q000453:epidemiology; D002681:China / Q000453:epidemiology; D003863:Depression / Q000453:epidemiology; D005247:Feeding Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D005767:Gastrointestinal Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008889:Military Personnel / Q000523:psychology*; D015995:Prevalence; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000150:complications*; D055815:Young Adult