Translation and validation of the Rome IV Functional Gastrointestinal Disease questionnaire for adults and prevalence of functional gastrointestinal disorders in the general Finnish population.

BACKGROUND

The accurate translation and validation of the Rome IV Functional Gastrointestinal Disease Questionnaire allow for its broader adoption in various clinical and research settings. Our objective was to translate and validate a Finnish version of the Rome IV Questionnaire for use in and to assess the prevalence of functional gastrointestinal disorders in the Finnish population.

MATERIALS AND

METHODS

Translation and validation of the questionnaire was performed according to the guidelines of the Rome Foundation. After translation, a subsample of the FINRISK 2002 survey participants aged 47-96 years, who were randomly drawn from the population register, filled in the questionnaire. Data collection was performed using the REDCap survey platform on a tablet computer. The results of the query were scored using the Scoring Algorithm for the Rome IV Diagnostic Questionnaire for Adults.

RESULTS

In total, 183 participants (mean age 67.2 + 9.4 years; 60.3% women) filled in the translated questionnaire. In this middle-aged and elderly population, the prevalence of functional gastrointestinal diseases was high when assessed using the questionnaire scoring algorithm, with 57.9% of the participants having ≥1 functional disorder. The most common disorder was unspecified functional bowel dysfunction (34.4%). Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and its subtypes were noted in 6.0% of the participants.

CONCLUSION

We successfully translated the Rome IV questionnaire for Adults into Finnish. The prevalence of IBS and its subtypes was similar to what has been observed in similar elderly populations. The Finnish version of the Rome IV questionnaire can be implemented in future research, and particularly in clinical studies.