Table 5.

Comparison of baseline characteristics of patients who switched vs. those who retained their original diagnoses

	Patients diagnosed as FC at Baseline			Patients diagnosed as IBS-C at Baseline
	FC at 12 mths (75)	IBS-C at 12 mths (26)	p-value	IBS-C at 12 mths (50)	FC at 12 mths (36)	p-value
Age/yrs	75.1	65.7	0.008	57.3	67.1	0.01
Frequency of abdominal pain or discomfort (median)#	0 “never”	1 “<1 day/mo”	0.001*	4 “1 day/week”	3 “2-3 days/mo”	<0.001*
No of Constipation symptoms	3.59	3.62	0.92	4.02	4.14	0.70
PAC-QOL total score	1.10	1.24	0.32*	1.74	1.56	0.14
SF-12 Physical Composite Score	41.2	43.5	0.44	43.3	42.1	0.66
SF-12 Mental Composite Score	53.7	50.7	0.25	47.1	48.8	0.43
BSI General Severity Index (T-score)	47.7	49.5	0.37	52.3	52.7	0.85

^*Significant after controlling for age using an ANCOVA.

^#Frequency of abdominal discomfort was described using an ordinal scale : 0 = Never; 1 = <1 day a month, 2 = one day a month, 3 = 2 to 3 days a month, 4 = one day a week. 5 = >1 day a week, 6 = Everyday