A Case-Control Study on the Relationship of Fiber Intake and Hemorrhoids

섬유질 섭취와 치질의 상관성에 관한 환자-대조군 연구

Recently the incidence of hemorrhoids has been increased. There were various factors related to hemorrhoids, the amount of fiber intake was known as one of them. And so we performed this case-control study to investigate the association of hemorrhoids and fiber intake. The data was obtained by the combination of self-administered questionnaire and personal interview. The study population was consisted of matched 156 pairs, the cases were selected from S-hospital in Seoul, the age and sex matched control from the general population. The statistical analysis was performed by matched-analysis. The results summarized as follow : 1) As socio-economic status were low, the odds ratio of hemorrhoids were high. 2) There was significant association between hemorrhoids and regularity of eating time rather than regularity of defecation. 3) The odds ratio of hemorrhoids was 3 times higher in the presence of constipation. 4) The incidence of hemorrhoids was influenced by psychological characteristics such as somatization, obsessive-compulsive, depression, and anxiety. 5) Fiber intake was significantly lower in the cases compared to the controls. When the constipation was controlled, the fiber intake was still lower in the cases. These data provide additional evidence that the fiber intake was related to hemorrhoids.