Table 4.

Patient-Assessed Measures of Bowel Function Before and After Pelvic Radiotherapy^a

Bowel Function Measure	Patients, %
	Baseline (n=124)	4 Weeks (n=105)	12 Months (n=92)	24 Months (n=73)
Not having to get up at night to have a bowel movement
Not very important or moderately unimportant	17	19	20	11
Neutral	23	15	11	25
Moderately important	30	26	33	33
Very important	30	40	35	31
Able to maintain control of bowel movement
Not very important or moderately unimportant	1	3	5	1
Neutral	5	3	9	3
Moderately important	10	12	12	21
Very important	84	82	74	75
Not having a bowel movement within 30 minutes of a previous bowel movement
Not very important or moderately unimportant	15	14	20	14
Neutral	31	27	25	30
Moderately important	27	31	30	34
Very important	27	27	25	22
Not having to wear protective clothing or a pad
Not very important or moderately unimportant	4	5	5	8
Neutral	6	7	8	10
Moderately important	15	21	18	10
Very important	75	68	69	73
Able to tell the difference between stool and gas
Not very important or moderately unimportant	4	5	4	3
Neutral	13	10	11	7
Moderately important	30	25	34	34
Very important	53	60	51	56
Neutral	31	27	25	30
Not having liquid bowel movements
Not very important or moderately unimportant	4	6	4	4
Neutral	16	12	12	18
Moderately important	31	29	37	34
Very important	48	53	47	44
Able to delay having a bowel movement for at least 15 minutes
Not very important or moderately unimportant	6	6	7	7
Neutral	15	9	16	13
Moderately important	40	37	40	44
Very important	39	49	37	37
Not having cramping with bowel movements
Not very important or moderately unimportant	5	5	14	8
Neutral	15	17	15	15
Moderately important	33	30	31	38
Very important	48	48	40	38
Not having blood in bowel movements
Not very important or moderately unimportant	1	1	4	1
Neutral	6	4	6	5
Moderately important	10*	17	7	11
Very important	83*	78	82	82

^aAll percentages were rounded to the nearest whole number. Some percentage totals are slightly more or less than 100% because of rounding.

^*The sum of these two values in the abstract and text is reported as 94% due to rounding.