Epidemiology of Irritable Bowel Syndrome Among Chilean Adults: Differences Across Healthcare Settings and Urban-Rural Populations.

Authors

Christian von Muhlenbrock, Nicole Pacheco, Natalia Santos, Florencia Carbone, Jan Tack, Ana María Madrid, Tim Vanuytsel

Published in

Neurogastroenterology and motility. Volume 38. Issue 10.

Abstract

Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is one of the most prevalent disorders of gut-brain interaction (DGBIs), with an estimated global prevalence ranging from 4.1% to 17%. However, prevalence data remain largely unknown in many countries and across different populations.
The aim of this study was to characterize IBS among Chilean adults using Spanish-validated Rome diagnostic criteria across healthcare and community-based settings, including public and private gastroenterology outpatient populations and urban and rural/Mapuche community populations.
IBS was assessed using standardized, Spanish-validated Rome questionnaires, with Rome IV criteria applied to available symptom data in the outpatient cohorts (public and private) and the official Spanish-language Rome IV Diagnostic Questionnaire used in the community-based populations (urban and rural/Mapuche). Data were analyzed using chi-squared, Mann-Whitney U, and multivariable logistic regression, with analyses performed using GraphPad Prism.
We evaluated the proportion of gastroenterology outpatients meeting Rome IV criteria for IBS and IBS subtypes in 8717 patients, as well as IBS prevalence in 896 urban and rural/Mapuche community participants. The proportion of gastroenterology outpatients meeting Rome IV criteria for IBS was higher in the public than private hospital (36.2% vs. 23.3%; p < 0.0001) and in urban females versus males (30.5% vs. 20.5%; p = 0.0015). Rural/Mapuche and urban populations showed comparable IBS prevalence (30.9% vs. 25.7%; p = 0.26), and rural/Mapuche residence was not significantly associated with IBS after adjustment for age and sex (adjusted OR 1.18, 95% CI 0.68-2.05; p = 0.56). The rural/Mapuche population had a different subtype distribution, with a higher proportion of IBS-M.
IBS symptoms compatible with Rome IV criteria were common across the evaluated Chilean adult populations, with differences observed according to healthcare setting and sex. Although IBS prevalence did not differ significantly between the urban and rural/Mapuche populations, this finding should be interpreted cautiously given differences in age and recruitment methods. Larger population-based studies are needed to confirm these findings in rural and Indigenous populations. These data provide novel insights into IBS epidemiology in a Latin American country with marked socioeconomic heterogeneity and may inform future population-based and mechanistic studies in diverse settings.

PMID:
42928586
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 26 Oct 2026.

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