Irritable Bowel Syndrome Among Female Students in Princess Nourah University in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

In this study, our objective was to explore the knowledge of Irritable Bowel syndrome (IBS) among university female students in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). A cross-sectional study was conducted where 307 university students were surveyed using a self-administered questionnaire to assess their awareness. The questionnaire was based on the socio-demographic and life-style characteristics of the students to evaluate the prevalence of IBS in the community. About 60% of the population in the age group of 18-20 years are at a high risk of suffering from IBS. However, no significant difference is demonstrated between lifestyle habits such as consumption of fast and spicy foods and physical activities and onset of IBS among the students. Nevertheless, frequent episodes of exercise in a week may reduce the probability of IBS onset. Interestingly, almost half of the student population mentioned that they were taking antibiotics and their sleep was interrupted as they woke up in the middle of the night. Also, majority of the population indicated that their stool texture was different, either hard or loose associated with a pain and distended abdomen followed with gastritis. Abdominal discomfort, feeling of bloating, altered texture of stool and urgency to defecate could be due to the development of psychological stress associated with academics, which possibly intensifies the disease symptoms. Initial findings from our study justifies the need of future longitudinal surveys to validate the existence of psychological stressors and other risk factors in the development of IBS subtypes