Introduction: Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a functional gastrointestinal disorder and requires early diagnosis due to its negative impacts on the quality of life. According to the lifestyle pattern of medical students, IBS has a significant prevalence in these individuals. The present study aims to investigate the prevalence and factors associated with IBS in medical students.

This cross-sectional study has been conducted on 100 medical students studying at Isfahan University of Medical Sciences in 2019-20. The ROME IV diagnostic criteria were administered to diagnose IBS and individuals were divided into four groups of constipation-dominant (IBS-C), diarrhea-dominant (IBS-D), mixed type (IBS-M) and unspecified (IBS-U). The association of studying grade, gender and residence with IBS was evaluated.

The mean age of the students was 23.2±4.8 years, including 68 (68%) women. According to ROME-IV criteria, 24 (24%) ones were diagnosed with IBS among which 18 (75%) ones were females.[1]  The IBS cases were dominantly in IBS-C group (54.16%). IBS was not associated with gender (P-value = 0.498), educational grade (P-value = 0.661) and type of the residence (P-value = 0.562) in the studied medical students.

According to the present study, the prevalence of IBS was 24% among medical students, which was higher among women. Most patients had IBS-C, but IBS did not show a statistically significant relationship with gender, educational grade and type of the residence.