Association of Dietary Energy Intake With Constipation Among Men and Women: Results From the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey

BACKGROUND: Previous studies supported that dietary factor was associated with constipation, but the relationship between dietary energy intake and constipation has not been well-studied. Therefore, we aimed to evaluate the prevalence and correlation between energy intake and constipation among men and women. METHODS: These observational analyses included 12,587 adults (≥20 years) from the 2005–2010 cycles of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys (NHANES). Constipation was defined as Bristol Stool Scale Type 1 (separate hard lumps, like nuts) or Type 2 (sausage-like but lumpy). Total energy intake was obtained from the two 24-h dietary recalls and averaged. We used the logistic regression model in Generalized Linear Model (GLM) function, controlling demographic, lifestyle, and dietary factors, to estimate the association between energy intake and constipation among men and women. RESULTS: The overall weighted incidence of constipation in this research was 7.4%, the incidence in women and men was 10.4 and 4.3%, respectively. After multivariable adjustment, middle energy consumption correlated with decreased risk of constipation in men (OR:0.5, 95% CI:0.29–0.84), and lower-middle energy intake increased the constipation risk in women (OR: 1.56, 95% CI: 1.15–2.13). High energy consumption was not associated with increased or decreased constipation risk. CONCLUSIONS: To our knowledge, this is the first research to investigate the association between energy intake and constipation; the study demonstrates that appropriate energy consumption can help reduce the risk of constipation in men, and relatively low energy intake is associated with increased constipation risk in women.