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Chronic diarrhoea

Authoring team

Chronic diarrhoea is defined as diarrhoea lasting for more than 4 weeks

  • a 4-week cut-off for a diagnosis of chronic diarrhoea has been used in studies done in industrialized countries
  • prevalence of chronic diarrhoea varies with the population surveyed and the inconsistency in the definition of chronic diarrhoea,
    • if based on the criterion of excessive stool frequency (>3 times/day) or loose stools (more than 25% of the time), the prevalence of chronic diarrhoea in the USA varies from 14 to 18%
    • if based on increased stool frequency alone the prevalence is approximately 5% (1)

Diagnosing chronic diarrhoea is a considerable challenge with several hundred conditions in the differential diagnosis.

Reference:

  1. Schiller LR et al. Gastro 2013 APDW/WCOG Shanghai working party report: chronic diarrhea: definition, classification, diagnosis. J Gastroenterol Hepatol. 2014;29(1):6-25.

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