Werth BL, Christopher SA. Potential risk factors for constipation in the community. World J Gastroenterol 2021; 27(21): 2795-2817 [PMID: 34135555 DOI: 10.3748/wjg.v27.i21.2795]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Barry L Werth, BPharm, MBA, PhD, Pharmacist, Susan Wakil School of Nursing and Midwifery, Faculty of Medicine and Health, University of Sydney, Building Western Avenue, Sydney 2006, New South Wales, Australia. barrywerth@yahoo.com.au
Research Domain of This Article
Gastroenterology & Hepatology
Article-Type of This Article
Minireviews
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
World J Gastroenterol. Jun 7, 2021; 27(21): 2795-2817 Published online Jun 7, 2021. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v27.i21.2795
Potential risk factors for constipation in the community
Barry L Werth, Sybele-Anne Christopher
Barry L Werth, Sybele-Anne Christopher, Susan Wakil School of Nursing and Midwifery, Faculty of Medicine and Health, University of Sydney, Sydney 2006, New South Wales, Australia
Author contributions: Werth BL designed the review and wrote the original draft of the manuscript which was reviewed and edited by Christopher SA. Further versions of the manuscript were reviewed and edited by both authors; both authors approved the final version of the manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare no conflict of interest regarding publication of this review.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Barry L Werth, BPharm, MBA, PhD, Pharmacist, Susan Wakil School of Nursing and Midwifery, Faculty of Medicine and Health, University of Sydney, Building Western Avenue, Sydney 2006, New South Wales, Australia. barrywerth@yahoo.com.au
Received: January 27, 2021 Peer-review started: January 27, 2021 First decision: February 27, 2021 Revised: March 31, 2021 Accepted: April 26, 2021 Article in press: April 26, 2021 Published online: June 7, 2021
Core Tip
Core Tip: Despite widespread beliefs that there are a number of potential risk factors for constipation in the community, this review highlights the paucity of real-world evidence for most factors. It is unclear whether most factors are associated with constipation because, apart from female gender, physical activity, residential location and some health-related factors, there is insufficient evidence or conflicting data available. Further research is required in community-dwelling adult populations to understand the importance of each potential risk factor in constipation. A broad range of factors should be investigated in same population samples using multivariate analysis to determine which factors are truly associated with constipation in the community.
