Healthy lifestyle score and irritable bowel syndrome: A cross-sectional study in adults

Abstract

Background Lifestyle modifications play an important role in the management of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), but there is limited information on any associations of combined lifestyle-related factors with IBS in Middle Eastern populations. We, therefore, assessed the associations of a "lifestyle score," in analogy to lifestyle scores applied in studies of other disorders, with IBS in adults. Methods In a cross-sectional study on 3363 Iranian adults, a healthy lifestyle score (HLS) was constructed using information about dietary habits, dietary intake, physical activity, smoking status, and psychological distress, which was collected using validated questionnaires. A modified version of the Rome III questionnaire (in Persian) was used to diagnose IBS and its subtypes. Key Results Individuals with the highest HLS had a 65 lower odds of having IBS compared with those in the lowest category (OR: 0.35; 95 CI: 0.26-0.48). Participants with healthy dietary habits, including regular meal pattern, slow/moderate eating rate, moderate intra-meal fluid consumption, moderate/long meal-to-sleep interval, and low/moderate consumption of fatty foods, had significantly lower odds of having IBS compared with those with unhealthy dietary habits (OR: 0.81; 95 CI: 0.69-0.96). Moreover, individuals with lower levels of psychological distress, compared with those with higher levels of distress, had significantly lower odds of IBS (OR: 0.49; 95 CI: 0.40-0.60). Conclusions and Inferences Our data suggest that having an overall "healthy lifestyle" is related to substantially reduced odds of IBS, suggesting that adhering to a healthy lifestyle pattern, including dietary habits, diet quality, physical activity, smoking, and psychological distress, can be considered as a key management strategy for IBS.