Relation between Serum and Dietary Zinc Levels and Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) in Medical Students of Ain Shams University

Background Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), is one of the commonest gastrointestinal disorders and IBS symptoms control often involve food restrictions that may cause zinc deficiency which is in turn may contribute to pathophysiology of IBS. Objectives To measure the proportion of IBS and its subtypes in medical students and to correlate between serum zinc level and dietary zinc intake with IBS. Methods A cross sectional study was carried out among a sample of students at The Nutritional Assessment of Medical Students of Ain Shams University (NAMS/ASU). A total of 199 students were involved, all participants were subjected to direct interviews self-administered questionnaires including GIT clinical symptoms, 24 hours food recall and food frequency questionnaire. They were also subjected to serum zinc level measurement. In addition to calculation of dietary zinc intake daily using food composition analysis software according to the Egyptian Food Composition Tables. Results The number of medical students that had positive ROME IV criteria were 104 students, in a proportion of 8.5% of the students participated in NAMES/ASU, with IBS-C was the commonest type. Serum zinc level was significantly low in IBS students with positive significance correlation to dietary zinc intake. Dietary consumption of zinc rich food showed significant reduction of serum zinc level with milk and dairy products intake of less than 3 servings per week. Conclusion the proportion of IBS in NAMES/ASU project was about 8.5% with the IBS-C was the most common subtype. They had low serum zinc level and a positive significant correlation with dietary zinc intake.