Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a group of immune-mediated chronic disorders that are divided into two major types of ulcerative colitis (UC) and Crohn's disease (CD). Dietary supplementation has beneficial effects in management of ulcerative colitis. In this study, we aimed to investigate the association between dietary supplementation and Gastrointestinal Symptom-Rating Scale (GSRS) in Patients with Ulcerative Colitis.

This cross-sectional study was conducted on patients with ulcerative colitis at the Alimentary Tract Research Center. A questionnaire about demographic and dietary supplementation information was filled for each patient. GSRS was measured by a standard questionnaire for each participant. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 17.0

Sixty patients were eligible for the study and completed it. Thirty nine participants was female (65 %). The mean age of participants was 36.4 ± 10.3. Forty patients used dietary supplements including Calcium (25%), Vitamin D (48.3%), Folic acid (11.6%), Iron (18.3%), Multivitamin (0.5%) and twenty patients (33.3%) didn’t use any supplements. Patients that used vitamin D supplement had lower GSRS (34.1 ± 11.3) significantly (P-value=0.03).

The results of the study showed that vitamin D supplementation has related to lower gastrointestinal symptoms in patients with ulcerative colitis.