Io. Olubuyide et al., FREQUENCY OF DEFECATION AND STOOL CONSISTENCY IN NIGERIAN STUDENTS, Journal of tropical medicine and hygiene, 98(4), 1995, pp. 228-232
To provide a context in which to interpret reports of bowel dysfunctio
n, it is important to know bowel patterns of the general population. W
e asked 600 apparently healthy students at the Medical School of the U
niversity of Ibadan, Nigeria, to complete a questionnaire. Their diet
consists mainly of foods derived from tubers and legumes such as yam,
cassava and beans. The majority of our students defaecated between thr
ee times per day and three times per week. Subjects with one bowel mov
ement per day were in the minority. There were no marked differences i
n bowel frequencies between sexes or nationalities. Most defaecations
occurred in the early morning, in women earlier than in men. There was
no relation between bowel frequency and stool consistency. Approximat
ely 20% of subjects took laxatives regularly. More often than not, lax
atives were taken for reasons unrelated to bowel habit, indicating the
need for a health education programme to warn against self-medication
and indiscriminate use of laxatives in the population. Our results ar
e compared to reported findings in surveys of other populations.