BOWEL HABITS IN ISRAEL - A COHORT STUDY

We interviewed 1,900 healthy subjects who belonged to one of the three following ethnic groups: (a) Ashkenazi Jews, (b) Sephardi and Orienta l Jews, and (c) Arabs (including Druses)-about their bowel habits, lax ative use, and beliefs about bowel action. Using stepwise logistic reg ression, we found that the following variables were significantly and independently related to bowel frequency: (a) sex-male > female (p = 0 .0001); (b) age-young > old (p = 0.0001); (c) physical activity-high > little (p = 0.001); (d) body habitus-lean > obese (p = 0.02); (e) mar ital status-married > single (0 = 0.009); and (f) ethnic group-Arab > Jewish (p = 0.004). Regular use of laxatives was found in 18.4% of wom en and 10.8% of men (p < 0.0001). This habit was more common among Ash kenazi Jews (17%) than among Sephardi and Oriental Jews (10.7%) and Ar abs (4.8%). Laxative intake was higher among the elderly (p = 0.0001) and the obese (p = 0.0004). Concerning the ''ideal'' bowel frequency, 12.4% of the Ashkenazis, 22.7% of the Sephardis and Oriental Jews, and 26.1% of the Arabs preferred to have at least 9 movements per week. S trikingly, 51.8% of all interviewed believed that constipation was ''h armful to health;'' women were more concerned than men (56.3% versus 4 7.5%). Subjects with a high level of education were significantly more concerned about constipation.