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The
purpose of constructing objective measurements related to constipation
is:
- To make a diagnosis
of the physiological cause of the constipation, which may be useful in clinical
practice to determine best treatment, or as a classification tool in research,
or
- To provide an indicator
of the severity of the condition which can be generalized beyond the report
of the individual patient.
The expense
and the invasiveness of the measurement procedures require that they be tailored
to the wider condition of the patient.
Bowel movement
frequency
A
readily assessable component of constipation is bowel movement
frequency. Studies of a healthy British population have
found that 99% defecate between three times a week and three times
a day (Connell
et al., 1965). This is a very wide normal range, and suggests
that on a subjective level an individual who usually has a relatively
frequent bowel habit might consider themselves constipated when
their bowel movement frequency is still within these outer limits.
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