OBJECTIVE: To study the epidemiologic features of functional bowel disorders (FBD) among medical students and science and engineering students in Zhejiang province, China, and to explore the relationship between psychological factors and FBD. METHODS: This study was a survey of random sampling based on the Rome III Diagnostic Questionnaire (Rome III-DQ) conducted from November 2010 to March 2011. The survey was carried out among medical students and science and engineering students respectively in two universities in Zhejiang province. Symptom Check List 90 (SCL-90) was used for psychological analysis. RESULTS: Among 1870 participants, 1033 were diagnosed as FBD based on Rome III criteria, with an overall incidence of 55.24%. The majority cases were unspecified functional bowel disorder, with an incidence of 26.58% (497/1870), others were functional constipation 16.95% (317/1870), irritable bowel syndrome 6.90% (129/1870), functional bloating 4.12% (77/1870) and functional diarrhea 0.70% (13/1870). The prevalence varied in different genders, majors and grades. In the multivariate analysis, women had a higher risk of any FBD than men [68.33% (617/903) vs 43.02% (416/967)] except for functional diarrhea; and medical students had a higher risk of any FBD than science and engineering students [68.53% (734/1071) vs 37.42% (299/799)]. Generally higher grade undergraduates had relatively higher risks than lower grade students, especially in medical students. Among the participants with FBD, 44.05% (455/1033) had other functional gastrointestinal disorders. In those overlapped parts, 9.00% (93/1033) had belching disorders, and 8.23% (85/1033) had functional dyspepsia. Students with FBD got higher scores in SCL-90 than healthy students. CONCLUSIONS: This study revealed a high rate of FBD among college students in Zhejiang province. The prevalence varied in different majors, and female higher than male. Psychological factors also had close relationships with FBD.