Increasing dietary fiber intake in terms of kiwifruit improves constipation in Chinese patients

Table 2 Secondary efficacy variables before and after the kiwi fruit treatment in the constipated patients and healthy subjects (mean ± SD)

	Constipated patients			Healthy subjects
	Before treatment	After treatment	P value	Before treatment	After treatment	P value
Bristol stool scale	3.1 ± 1.9	3.3 ± 1.2	0.58	4.0 ± 0.9	4.2 ± 0.8	0.94
Straining	1.9 ± 0.5	1.8 ± 0.5	0.88	0.3 ± 0.5	0.4 ± 0.5	0.97
Bothersomeness of constipation	2.6 ± 0.9	2.0 ± 1.1	0.02	0.2 ± 0.5	0.2 ± 0.4	1.0
Satisfaction of bowel habit	2.7 ± 0.9	1.6 ± 1	0.001	0.3 ± 0.5	0.2 ± 0.5	0.97
Number of days taking laxatives (rescue therapy)/wk	2.2 ± 2.5	0.8 ± 1.5	0.003	0	0	-
Percentage of patients taking laxatives	60.60%	30.30%	0.013	0	0	-