TOPLINE:

Middle-aged and older adults who adopt three to five healthy lifestyle behaviors — never smoking, 7-9 hours of sleep per night, high levels of vigorous physical activity, a high-quality diet, and moderate alcohol consumption (5-15 g/d) — have a 40% reduced risk for incident functional constipation compared with those who adopt none.

METHODOLOGY:

• Functional constipation affects about 10%-15% of people worldwide and accounts for up to $230 million in annual US healthcare costs. Although linked to modifiable lifestyle factors, no primary prevention guidelines exist.
• Researchers analyzed middle-aged and older UK Biobank participants without a previous diagnosis of functional constipation who completed at least two 24-hour dietary recall questionnaires.
• Five healthy lifestyle behaviors were assessed: never smoking, optimal sleep (7-9 h/d), a high level of vigorous physical activity (highest 50% of the cohort), high dietary quality (highest quartile of Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension diet score), and moderate alcohol intake (5-15 g/d).
• Lifestyle data were collected using structured self-report questionnaires.

TAKEAWAY:

• During a median follow-up duration of 11.7 years, 3.3% of 107,457 participants (mean age, 56 years; 54% women) developed functional constipation.
• Participants with three to five behaviors had a significantly lower risk for functional constipation than those with none (hazard ratio [HR], 0.60; P < .001).
• Never smoking (HR, 0.83; P < .001), high levels of vigorous physical activity (HR, 0.79; P < .001), and optimal sleep (HR, 0.79; P < .001) were each inversely associated with risk.
• Practicing three healthy behaviors was associated with a 38% risk reduction (P < .001), and practicing four to five was associated with a 49% risk reduction (P < .001).

IN PRACTICE:

“A coordinated, multilevel strategy is imperative to facilitate the widespread adoption of the five key lifestyle recommendations among the general population as a means of [functional constipation] prevention,” the authors of the study wrote.

SOURCE:

The study was led by Fai Fai Ho, MPH, School of Chinese Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China. It was published online in The American Journal of Gastroenterology.

LIMITATIONS:

Outcome misclassification bias was possible due to the inability to distinguish between different types of constipation using available diagnostic codes. Reliance on self-reported lifestyle data may have introduced recall and reporting biases. The cohort comprised primarily of middle-aged and older White individuals residing in the UK, limiting the generalizability.

DISCLOSURES:

This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China. The authors declared having no conflicts of interest.

This article was created using several editorial tools, including AI, as part of the process. Human editors reviewed this content before publication.