Clinical features of unspecified functional bowel disorder in servicemen from a Chinese army unit

Objective To investigate clinical manifestation of unspecified functional bowel disorder (UFBD), the features of coexistence with functional gastrointestinal disorder (FGID) and its relationship with psychological factors and sleep disturbance in the Chinese Army servicemen. Methods cFGIDs were diagnosed based on the Rome Ⅲ Modular Questionnaire. The subjects were 189 servicemen with UFBD (UFBD group) and 372 without FGID (control group). All subjects completed symptom checklist 90 (SCL-90) and Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) questionnaire. Results 'Have to rush to the toilet when having a desire to defecate' was the most frequent symptom of UFBD (93.7%). More than one half of UFBD patients had the symptom 'a feeling of incomplete emptying as bowel movements' or 'straining during bowel movements'. Twenty-eight percent of UFBD subjects had combined FGID (namely cFGID). Among them, the most frequent was proctalgia fugax (7.9%), followed by cyclic vomiting syndrome (6.3%), functional fecal incontinence (6.3%), functional dyspepsia (4.8%) and belching (4.8%). The UFBD group scored significantly higher than the control group in the global severity index (GSI) and in all SCL-90 subscales (P<0.05). The scores of the four domains (sleep quality, sleep latency , sleep disturbance and daytime function disorder), total PSQI score and proportion of poor sleeping quality were significantly higher in the UFBD group than in the control group (P<0.05). The subjects scored significantly higher in combined FGID group than in UFBD group in GSI and in all of SCL-90 subscales, except for phobic anxiety subscales (P<0.05). However, there was no significant difference in each domain, total PSQI and proportion of poor sleeping quality between the cFGID group and UFBD group (P>0.05). Conclusion Pathogenesis of UFBD may be closely correlated with psychiatric and psychological factors and sleep disturbance. cFGID are associated with an increased severity of psychopathological features. DOI: 10.11855/j.issn.0577-7402.2017.01.1