Correlation among Dietary Habits Score, Life Stress Score and Health-Related Quality of Life (HRQL) Score for Female College Students with Functional Constipation

ABSTRACT

The study purpose was to investigate correlations among dietary habits score, life stress score and health-related quality of life (HRQL) score for female college students with functional constipation (FC). The data were collected in 2008 from 265 female college students 86 with FC and 179 without FC. The diagnosis of FC was based on the Rome II criteria, and life stress and HRQL were assessed using self-administered life stress questionnaire and SF-36, respectively. The correlations among dietary habit score, life stress score, and HRQL score were evaluated. The averages of age, height, weight, body fat percentage and body mass index (BMI) of female college students were 20.8 years, 160.9 cm, 53.7 kg, 27.8%, and 20.7 kg/m2, respectively. The average dietary habit score of "having meals with diverse foods" was significantly lower in the FC group than in the normal group (p < 0.05). The average faculty problem (p < 0.05), grade problem (p < 0.05), economy problem (p < 0.05), value problem (p < 0.05), and total stress (p < 0.01) scores of the FC group were significantly higher than those of the normal group. The average HRQL score was 70.4 in the FC group and 74.3 in the normal group (p < 0.05). There were significantly negative correlations between total stress score and total food habits score (r = -0.221; p < 0.01) and HRQL score (r = -0.539; p < 0.01) in the FC. These results suggest that female students with FC are highly perceptive to stress and have low HRQL. In addition, female students with FC may require nutritional education about eating diversity.