DefinePK

Abstract

Objective: To find out the relationship of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) andgeneralized anxiety disorder (GAD) among students of Peshawar Medical Collegeand Peshawar Dental College.Methodology: This Cross sectional study was conducted in Peshawar MedicalCollege and Peshawar Dental College from November 2015 to February 2016.ROME III criteria was used for the diagnosis of IBS and to assess GAD, a 7-itemGeneralized Anxiety Disorder (GAD-7) scale was used. A total of 750 questionnaireswere distributed and 604 (80.5%) questionnaires were received back aftercompletion. The data was analyzed using SPSS v.20 and a p value of <0.05was considered significant.Results: The mean age of the sample was 20.93 ±1.47 years. Majority of thesample comprised of female students (n=387, 64.1%). A total of 223 (36.9%)students met the criteria for IBS and 143 (23.7%) students scored above thecut off for GAD. Eighty-four (13.9%) students that had IBS also had GAD. Thecorrelation of IBS was highly significant with GAD (r=.236, p =.000).Conclusion: More than one third of the medical students were having IBS anda quarter of students were having GAD. More than 20% of students having IBSalso had GAD and there was highly significant correlation between IBS andGAD.