Table 3.
Key studies evaluating dietary therapies head to head
| Lead author | Year | Study design | Study duration | Total number of participants | Comparator diets | Outcome |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bohn [48] | 2015 | RCT | 4 weeks | 75 IBS patients (Rome III) | TDA and LFD | No difference in clinical responders between TDA and LFD (50% vs 46%, p = 0.72) |
| Eswaran [49] | 2016 | RCT | 4 weeks | 92 IBS-D patients (Rome III) | mNICE and LFD | No difference in adequate symptom relief between mNICE and LFD (41% vs 52%, p = 0.31) |
| Zahedi [50] | 2017 | RCT | 6 weeks | 110 IBS-D patients (Rome III) | General dietary advice and LFD | LFD significantly improved overall gastrointestinal symptom scores, stool frequency and consistency compared to generalised dietary advice (p < 0.001, p < 0.001 and p = 0.003, respectively) |
| Paduano [23] | 2019 | Prospective study | 4 weeks | 42 IBS patients (Rome IV) | LFD, GFD and Mediterranean diet | LFD, GFD and Mediterranean diet showed the same efficacy in reducing disease severity (p < 0.01) |
| Goyal [52] | 2021 | RCT | 16 weeks | 101 IBS-D patients (Rome IV) | TDA and LFD | Higher proportion of responders on LFD compared to TDA at both week 4 (63% vs 41%, p = 0.0448) and week 16 (53% vs 31%, p = 0.0274) |
| Rej [20] | 2022 | RCT | 4 weeks | 101 IBS patients (Rome IV) | TDA, LFD and GFD | No difference in clinical response between TDA, LFD and GFD (42% vs 55% vs 58%, p = 0.43) |
Total number of studies; n = 6, total number of participants; n = 521