Nearly 1 in 7 Americans experience bloating on a weekly basis, and most aren’t seeking professional care for it, according to a new study led by Cedars-Sinai investigators. The findings are published in Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology.

“Although bloating is a common symptom, some patients may not bring it up with their doctors,” said Janice Oh, MD, a resident physician within the Division of General Internal Medicine Division at Cedars-Sinai and first author of the study. “It’s important that people feel comfortable discussing bloating because it could be a symptom of a serious condition and there are treatments available.”

Bloating can make people feel swollen or tight in the abdomen. It may occur when a person’s gastrointestinal tract fills with air or gas and can sometimes be the result of diet or an underlying condition, such as irritable bowel syndrome, carbohydrate enzyme deficiency or chronic constipation.

To understand the scope of bloating in the U.S., the authors emailed a survey to nearly 90,000 people. Of the 88,795 people who completed the survey from May through June 2020, 12,324 (13.9%) reported bloating in the past seven days.

“To our knowledge, this is among the largest studies of bloating in the U.S.,” said Brennan Spiegel, MD, MSHS, director of Health Services Research at Cedars-Sinai and senior author of the study. “Anecdotally, we often hear about bloating in the clinic, but this study adds concrete evidence to describe how commonly it occurs and what other conditions it’s associated with.”

Of the people who reported experiencing bloating, about 58.5% said they have never sought care for their symptoms.

Source: Read Full Article