Dietary habits in patients presenting with chronic constipation at Tertiary Care Hospital, Karachi.

Objective: To determine dietary habits in patients presenting with chronic constipation (CC) at tertiary care hospital in Karachi. Study Design: Cross-sectional study. Setting: Department of Gastroenterology, Liaquat National Hospital. Period: June 2022 to December 2022. Methods: Patients of age 18 years and above of either gender, presenting with history of CC were enrolled. Dietary fiber intake was determined on the basis of self-reported history. Dietary fiber intake was categorized as higher fiber intake, medium fiber intake and low fiber intake. Data was entered in SPSS version 26 to perform statistical analysis. Results: Total 190 patients were enrolled with median age and disease duration of 40 (IQR=29-55) years and 16 (IQR=9-24) months respectively. Majority of the patients were males (n=121, 63.7%). Around three-fourth people had low fiber intake (72.6%), nearly quarter had medium level of fiber intake (26.3%) and very few had high intake (1.1%). Fiber intake was significantly higher among those with low literacy. Less fiber intake was significantly seen with patients having dyslipidemia and weight loss. Water glass consumption per day was significantly higher among those with medium to high fiber intake. Conclusion: The present study analyzed that fiber intake was quite low among CC patients. General public should be educated regarding importance of dietary fiber for disease cure and better gut health particularly those who are lower educated patients and those with dyslipidemia.