Irritable bowel syndrome, diet and quality of life

ABSTRACT

Introduction: Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) is a disorder of bowel function that affects approximately 23% of the population worldwide. It represents the most common gastrointestinal disorder. Dietary changes contribute catalytically to the treatment and limitation of particularly painful symptoms.

Aim: This review aims to study the irritable bowel, to investigate the type of diet that is indicated for people suffering from IBS and the effects that the syndrome causes on the daily life and the quality of life of the person.

Materials and Method: PubMed, Google Scholar, Cochrane, Web of Science and Scopus databases were searched from July 2020 to April 2023 using the keywords: Irritable Bowel Syndrome, Food Intolerance, Fodmaps diet, quality of life, psychology, intestinal disorders. A narrative literature review of 8 studies that met the inclusion criteria was performed.

Results: This paper reviewed 8 primary studies, the full text of which was retrieved.   Of these, 1 was prospective, 2 patient-control, 3 cross-sectional and 2 clinical trials. It was found that the symptoms of SHE have a significant impact on the daily life of the patients, reducing the quality of life. Anxiety and depression are moderately associated with health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in people with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and IBS, and food-related quality of life (FRQoL) is influenced by symptom severity patient. The 93.5% of patients reported that the consumption of certain foods, such as the FODMAP-rich diet, causes them discomfort and disorder that burdens the quality of life.

Conclusions: The consumption of specific foods had an effect on the quality of life of the sufferers, with the diet low in FODMAPs having positive effects. Further research is needed to investigate more nutritional interventions with a positive impact on the symptoms of the syndrome. It is necessary to have a holistic treatment and proper information from specialized health professionals and specialist psychologists, in order to achieve an effective treatment of the unpleasant effects of the syndrome on the daily life and quality of life of the sufferers.

Keywords: irritable bowel syndrome, IBS, nutrition, quality of life, intestinal disorders