ABSTRACT
Objective To investigate the prevalence of adult's chronic constipation in Tianjin city and to find out its associated pathogenetic factors. Methods During Aug. 2002 to Mar. 2003 the survey of chronic constipation in 7220 subjects aged≥18 in different part of the city and countryside were carred out by nine hospitals based on the clustering, randomly stratified sampling method. There were 118 items investigated in this survey including the possible factors associabed with pathogenesis of chronic constipation. The data were analyzed by Logistic regression. Results The prevalence of chronic constipation was 11.6% in total of 7220 cases which was significantly higher in females than in male(13.4% vs 9.7%, P =0.000) . The prevalence of chronic constipation increased with growing of age and related with occupation, exercises, psychological pressure, the habit of intake food and water. In addition,the chronic constipation was associated with reflux esophagitis and chronic gastritis. Conclusion The measures of changing life style, drinking more water, taking more vegetables and having a good habit of bowel evacuation may decrease the prevalence of chronic constipation.