Gastrointestinal Tract Symptoms Among Persons With Diabetes Mellitus in the Community

Abstract

GASTROINTESTINAL (GI) tract symptoms are commonly reported in people with diabetes mellitus (DM). Feldman and Schiller¹ noted that 76% of the patients referred to a diabetic clinic in the United States had at least 1 GI tract symptom, and 60% reported constipation. Clouse and Lustman² found that more than 20% of the patients with DM from the registry of a General Clinical Research Center had nausea, abdominal pain, and diarrhea; however, only 12% had constipation. A third, more recent, study from a diabetes clinic in Germany³ reported that constipation and nausea were more frequent in patients with type 2 DM compared with control subjects. These 3 studies all involved patients seen in tertiary care centers. In the only previous population-based survey to specifically measure GI tract symptoms in patients with DM, dysphagia, nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, diarrhea, and constipation were equally common among middle-aged Finnish patients with type 1 DM, type 2 DM, and controls.⁴