Table 3.

Features of the various irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) groups

	Group 1 PI-IBS	Group 2 previous IBS	Group 3 new IBS	Group 4 never IBS	χ2 test	p Value
n	14	13	20	145
History of anxiety/depression
Yes	3	5	5	31	2.0	0.6
No	11	8	15	113
Sex
Female	12	10	14	76	9.4	0.02
Male	2	3	6	69
Current HRT females only
Yes	3	2	1	11	1.8	0.6
No	9	8	13	63
Recovery at 6 years
Yes	6	4			F test*	0.7
No	8	9

PI-IBS, post-infective irritable bowel syndrome.

*Fisher's exact test.