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

Figures & data

Table 1 Bivariate Analysis of Sociodemographic Characteristics, Habits and Lifestyle of Adult Women with and without Constipation. Santa Cruz/RN, Brazil, 2016

	Overall (n=195)		Constipation				p-value
			Yes (n=69)		No (n=126)
	N	%	N	%	N	%
Age
Young adult/Adult (19 to 39 years)	136	69.7	44	63.8	92	73.0	0.18
Middle aged (40 to 49 years)	59	30.3	25	36.2	34	27.0
Race
White	58	29.7	20	29.0	38	30.2	0.86
Brown and Black	137	70.3	49	71.0	88	69.8
Education
Primary School	93	47.7	32	46.4	61	48.4	0.79
High School or Higher	102	52.3	37	53.6	65	51.6
Income
Up to 1 minimum monthly salary	155	79.5	57	82.6	98	77.8	0.42
>1 minimum salary	40	20.5	12	17.4	28	22.2
Civil Status
Single	91	46.7	27	39.1	64	50.8	0.12
With partner	104	53.3	42	60.9	62	49.2
Physical activity
Yes	39	20.0	10	14.5	29	23.0	0.16
No	156	80.0	59	85.5	97	77.0
Health perception
Normal	63	32.3	26	37.7	37	29.4	0.37
Good	86	44.1	26	37.7	60	47.6
Bad	46	23.6	17	24.6	29	23.0

Note: P-value was determined by Chi-squared test.

Table 2 Comparison of WHODAS Scores Between Adult Women with and without Constipation. Santa Cruz/RN, Brazil, 2016

Variables	Constipation (Yes=69)		Constipation (No=126)		Effect Size η^2	p-value
	Median	Interquartile Range	Median	Interquartile Range
WHODAS 2.0
Total score	19.6	24.5	10.3	17.4	0.076	<0.001
Cognition	20.0	27.5	12.5	20.0	0.054	<0.001
Mobility	18.7	34.3	6.2	25.0	0.051	<0.002
Self-care	0.0	10.0	0.0	0.0	0.062	<0.001
Interpersonal relations	8.3	25.0	8.3	16.7	0.016	0.076
Activity of daily life	10.0	40.0	0.0	20.0	0.017	0.072
Participation	25.0	37.5	12.5	25.0	0.085	<0.001

Notes: P-value calculated by the Mann–Whitney U-Test. Effect size calculated by Eta squared.

Table 3 Analysis of the Association Between Constipation and WHODAS 2.0 Total Score by Linear Regression. Santa Cruz/RN, Brazil, 2016

Model I - Unadjusted
	Constant	β	95% CI	P-value
Constipation	13.34	9.10	5.04 to 13.15	<0.001
Model II – Adjusted by age, civil status and physical activity.
	Constant	β	95% CI	P-value
Constipation	17.33	9.24	5.14 to 13.34	<0.001