Table 4.

Bowel function related to expected efficacy of the laxative regimen.

	Normal bowel function n = 116 (59%)	Altered bowel function n = 81 (41%)
On demand only	8 (57.1%)	6 (42.9%)
Lactulose or fibre only	52 (66.7%)	26 (33.3%)
One laxative other than lactulose and fibre	29 (54.7%)	24 (45.3%)
Two or more laxatives	27 (51.9%)	25 (48.1%)

The results are given as number of participants with proportion (%) in brackets.

There were no significant differences between the groups (exact chi-square p = 0.34; and linear-by-linear p = 0.16)