Incidence of constipation in submariners and its impact on their psychological status and life quality

Abstract

Objective To investigate the incidence of functional constipation (FC) in submariners and its impact on their psychological status and life quality, so as to provide scientific evidence for submarine medical support. Methods Five hundred and ninety-two submariners were randomly chosen from a certain submarine unit, including 326 sea service personnel and 266 shore service personnel. Rome Ⅲ standard epidemiologic questionnaire (Rome-Ⅲ MQ) was used to investigate the incidence of FC among sea service personnel. Then, 60 subjects with FC and 120 subjects without FC were randomly selected from the sea service group for evaluation of psychological status and life quality by using self-rating anxiety scales(SAS), self-rating depression scales(SDS), patient assessment of quality of life questionnaire(PAC-QOL) and simplified Chinese version of SF-36 health survey (SF-36). Results Five hundred and ninety-two copies of Rome-Ⅲ MQ were recovered, and 180 copies of SAS, SDS, PAC-QOL and SF-36 were respectively retrieved in the study. The incidence of FC among the sea service group and shore service group was respectively 35.6% (116/326) and 13.5%(36/266) (P 0.05). The total scores of PAC-QOL in the FC group and the non-FC group were respectively 1.0 (0.7-1.3) and 0.6 (0.4-0.7), also with statistical significance (P<0.05). The total scores of SF-36 in the FC group and the non-FC group were respectively 624.3 (449.9-700.4) and 687.8.4(612.8-729.8) with statistical significance (P<0.05), and significant differences could be found in various dimensions except the dimension of emotional function . Conclusion The incidence of FC was as high as one third among the sea service personnel, which was significantly higher than that of the shore service personnel. FC could worsen the seriousness of anxiety among submariners and decrease their life quality. Key words: Submariner; Constipation; Psychological status; Life quality