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Objective: To assess the prevalence and associated factors of constipation and hemorrhoids in urban Buddhist monks.
Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study included monks living in temples in Dusit and NongChok districts of Bangkok between March and July 2017. Demographic and health data including bowel habit, problems of defecation, eating habit, daily lifestyle, and physical examinations as well as laboratory data were collected. Factors associated with constipation and hemorrhoids were determined.
Results: Among 174 monks included in the study, 36 monks (20.7%) had defecation problems. The prevalence of constipation and hemorrhoids were 15.5% and 4% respectively. Monks with constipation tended to be older than those without the problem (50.7±22.6 years and 43.1±17.9 years; p = 0.051). Other findings which were more common among the monks with constipation than the other monks were: higher frequency of tea or coffee drinks (33.3% vs. 17%; p = 0.049), having osteoarthritis of knee (11.1% vs. 2%; p = 0.049) and creatinine level ≥ 1 mg/dL (51.9% vs. 32%; p = 0.047). On the other hand, monks with hemorrhoids were significantly older (62.7±17.9 years vs. 43.5±18.5 years; p = 0.008) and had more of hypertension (71.4% vs. 12.6%; p = 0.001), dyslipidemia (42.9% vs. 7.8%; p = 0.018), and heart diseases (28.6% vs. 1.8%; p = 0.013) than those without hemorrhoids. Only hypertension was an independent associated factor with hemorrhoids in multivariable analysis.
Conclusion: Approximately 1/5 of Thai monks living in Bangkok had defecation problems. Several associated factor with constipation and hemorrhoids were identified. Older age was a common factor for both conditions. Lifestyle modification including having high fiber diet, minimize tea or coffee consumption and well control of other medical illnesses may alleviate the defecation problems.