Is Constipation Associated with Worse Functioning in Adult Women? A Cross-Sectional Study

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study is to analyze the relationship between intestinal constipation and functioning in adult women living in a municipality in the interior of northeast Brazil. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This is a cross-sectional study conducted with 195 adult women in the city of Santa Cruz-RN. Constipation was diagnosed using the Rome III criteria. Functioning was measured through WHODAS 2.0. Social conditions, habits and lifestyle were also investigated. Inferential analysis was performed using the chi-squared test and the Mann–Whitney U-test, and the effect size was determined by eta squared (η(2)). Multivariate analysis was performed using multiple linear regression to analyze the relationship between the WHODAS total score and constipation, being adjusted by covariates with p≤0.20 in the bivariate. A statistical significance level of p<0.05 was considered. RESULTS: Most of the participants in this study were aged 19 to 39 years (69.7%) and had an income of up to 1 minimum monthly salary (79.5%). WHODAS scores showed that women with constipation had more disability in the cognitive (p <0.001), mobility (p <0.002), self-care (p <0.001), and participation (p <0.001) domains, as well as the total score (p <0.001). After multiple linear regression analysis, the total WHODAS score remained associated with constipation (p <0.001), in which this condition increases the score by nine points. CONCLUSION: The results of this study show that there is a reduction in functioning associated with the presence of constipation in adult women, mainly affecting the cognition, mobility, self-care and participation domains, in addition to the total score.