ArticlePublic health nutrition2021
The association between meal and snack frequency and irritable bowel syndrome.
Article in Public health nutrition, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.
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Who cites it
3 citing papers in PubMed, 5 citations in OpenAlex.
- Relationship between healthy lifestyle score and infertility in Iranian men: a population-based case-control study.Reproductive biology and endocrinology : RB&E · 2025Article
- Effects of meal regularity and snacking frequency on irritable bowel syndrome.Frontiers in public health · 2025Article
- The association between dietary meal intake habits and coronary artery stenosis and cardio-metabolic risk factors.BMC nutrition · 2024Article
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectiveThe relationship between daily meal and snack frequency with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) was less investigated in the literature. We aimed to evaluate this association with IBS symptoms.
designA cross-sectional study.
settingThis investigation was performed in Isfahan, a large province in the centre of Iran. Individuals were asked to complete a self-administered questionnaire to quantify the numbers of daily main meals (one, two or three), snacks (never, 1-2, 3-5 or >5) and the total of them (<3, 3-5, 6-7 or ≥8). IBS and its subtypes were diagnosed according to Rome Ш criteria.
participantsGeneral adults (n 4669, 2063 men and 2606 women).
resultsThe prevalence of IBS was 18·6 % in males and 24·1 % in females. Individuals consuming three main meals had 30 % decreased risk of IBS (OR 0·70, 95 % CI 0·52, 0·94) compared with those with one main meal in the crude model. After adjustments for all potential confounders this relation disappeared (OR 0·67, 95 % CI 0·43, 1·03). Gender-specified analysis revealed that women consuming three main meals per day had 32 % decreased likelihood of having IBS symptoms compared with one daily main meal takers (OR 0·68, 95 % CI 0·47, 0·99). This relation remained significant after adjustment for potential confounders (OR 0·56, 95 % CI 0·36, 0·89). A decreased likelihood of IBS in the highest category of main meal consumption compared with the lowest one was found in obese or overweight subjects (OR 0·54, 95 % CI 0·32, 0·91), after adjustment for all confounders.
conclusionsOur findings suggested that there was no significant relation between main meal or snack frequency and IBS in Iranian adults, but a small inverse association was found among females and overweight/obese individuals in subgroup analysis. Further prospective studies are needed confirming these associations.
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