Objective: This study aimed to investigate the association between eating rate and functional dyspepsia (FD) in a large population of Iranian adults.
Methods: In this cross-sectional study, we assessed eating rate of 4763 Iranian adults using a dietary habit questionnaire. We used a modified validated version of the Rome III questionnaire to assess gastrointestinal health. FD was defined as having one or more of the following characteristics: bothersome postprandial fullness, early satiation and/or epigastric pain or epigastric burning. Needed information on meal frequency, meal regularity, intra-meal fluid drinking as well as on other potential confounders was obtained by using a pre-tested questionnaire.
Results: Functional dyspepsia was prevalent in 15.2% (n=703) of the studied population. Lunch and total eating rate was associated with greater odds of having FD(OR: 1.37; 95% CI: 1.04-1.8) and (OR: 1.45; 95% CI: 1-2.11), respectively). However, this relationship weakened after adjusting for confounding factors. No significant relationship was found between dinner eating rate and FD in both crude and adjusted models (OR: 1.23; 95% CI: 0.83-1.51). There was no significant relation between lunch, dinner or total eating rate and risk of postprandial fullness, early satiation or epigastric pain either in crude or adjusted models. Eating rate was not related to severity or frequency of FD components.
Conclusions: Fast eating was associated with greater odds of FD. However, there was no association between fast eating with postprandial fullness and epigastria pain. Further studies, particularly prospective ones, are required to confirm these relations.