Richter Vered, Broide Efrat, Shalem Tzippora, Cohen Daniel L, Khoury Tawfik, Mansour Atallah, Naftali Timna, Mari Amir
The Gonczarowski Family Institute of Gastroenterology and Liver Disease, Shamir (Assaf Harofeh) Medical Center, Zerifin, Israel.
Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel.
Rambam Maimonides Med J. 2025 Apr 29;16(2):e0007. doi: 10.5041/RMMJ.10542.
Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) poses a significant healthcare challenge, characterized by chronic gastrointestinal and extraintestinal symptoms impacting individuals' well-being. Treatment preferences may vary among patients from different ethnic groups, such as Arab and Jewish Israelis, necessitating tailored approaches.
A bilingual (Hebrew/Arabic) questionnaire assessing patients' preferences regarding treatment goals was developed. It was administered online in Israeli IBS Facebook groups, as well as in two hospital gastroenterology clinics.
The study included 267 IBS patients (91 Arabs and 176 Jews). Demographic analysis revealed a higher proportion of females in both groups, with a significantly greater percentage among Jews compared to Arabs (84% versus 64.8%, respectively, P<0.001). The median age was 32 years for both Arabs and Jews (interquartile ranges of 26-42 and 24-62, respectively). Arabs exhibited higher rates of mixed-type IBS and constipation, while Jews had a higher prevalence of predominant diarrhea IBS. Arabs reported more bloating, higher rates of IBS-related comorbidities, and more medication usage. When asked to rate the importance of treatment goals, both populations preferred improvement in abdominal pain, bloating, and regular defecation, while assigning lower importance to improving difficulty in mental and/or physical aspects of intercourse, as well as arthralgia and myalgia. Arab patients assigned lower importance scores to various symptoms compared to their Jewish counterparts.
This study highlights the impact of ethnicity on patients' treatment goals. Understanding patients' preferences will enable tailoring an individual approach to each IBS patient.
肠易激综合征（IBS）对医疗保健构成重大挑战，其特征为慢性胃肠道和肠外症状，影响个体的健康状况。不同种族的患者（如阿拉伯裔和犹太裔以色列人）的治疗偏好可能存在差异，因此需要采取针对性的方法。
编制了一份评估患者对治疗目标偏好的双语（希伯来语/阿拉伯语）问卷。该问卷在以色列IBS脸书群组以及两家医院的胃肠病科诊所进行了在线发放。
该研究纳入了267例IBS患者（91例阿拉伯裔和176例犹太裔）。人口统计学分析显示，两组中女性比例均较高，其中犹太裔女性的比例显著高于阿拉伯裔（分别为84%和64.8%，P<0.001）。阿拉伯裔和犹太裔的年龄中位数均为32岁（四分位间距分别为26 - 42岁和24 - 62岁）。阿拉伯裔患者中混合型IBS和便秘的发生率较高，而犹太裔患者中以腹泻为主型IBS的患病率较高。阿拉伯裔患者报告的腹胀更多、IBS相关合并症的发生率更高且用药更多。当被要求对治疗目标的重要性进行评分时，两组人群都更倾向于改善腹痛、腹胀和规律排便，而对改善性交时的心理和/或身体方面的困难以及关节痛和肌痛的重要性评价较低。与犹太裔患者相比，阿拉伯裔患者对各种症状的重要性评分较低。
本研究强调了种族对患者治疗目标的影响。了解患者的偏好将有助于为每位IBS患者量身定制个体化的治疗方法。
