Figure 2.

Flow diagram of participant recruitment.

^aIneligible (dead, not rectal cancer, etc) after initial search, after wrong address and phone number, or after return of survey with patient reporting no rectal cancer or no intraabdominal surgery.

^bResponse rates (completed/eligible): 66.8% ostomy; 58.6% sphincter-sparing; 60.5% total.

^cSeven patients of the 182 with ostomy were excluded because they reported not regularly wearing ostomy bag.

^dThree patients of the 394 with sphincter-sparing surgery were excluded because information they provide about the type of surgery was ambiguous.