IRRITABLE-BOWEL-SYNDROME DEFINED BY FACTOR-ANALYSIS - GENDER AND RACECOMPARISONS

To examine the applicability across subgroups of the Manning criteria commonly used to diagnose the irritable bowel syndrome, a 22-item symp tom questionnaire was administered to male and female African-American and Caucasian adults (N = 1344). Principal components factor analysis with varimax rotation was used to identify symptom clusters. Consiste nt with the findings of a previous factor analytic study, three of the six Manning symptoms (loose stools and more frequent bowel movements with onset of pain, pain relieved by defecation) formed a cluster corr esponding to the irritable, bowel syndrome in all subgroups. It is con cluded that: (1) The three core Manning symptoms have equal applicabil ity to both genders and to African-Americans as well as to Caucasians. They are useful symptom criteria for the diagnosis of IBS when used i n conjunction with medical evaluation. (2) Three of the six Manning sy mptoms rarely correlate with the others; if confirmed in patient sampl es, this would indicate that these three symptoms are not useful for m aking a diagnosis of the irritable bowel syndrome.