Sunday, October 21Poster Session: Professional Skills; Nutrition Assessment & Diagnosis; Medical Nutrition TherapyEvaluation of Nutritional Adequacy and Symptom Improvement During Implementation of the Low-FODMAP Diet in Individuals with Irritable Bowel Syndrome
Section snippets
Learning Outcome
Upon completion, participant will be able to identify the optimal period of time for the elimination phase of the low FODMAP diet and understand the potential nutritional inadequacies.
Research Outcome
This study aims to define the duration of the elimination phase for symptom relief and to assess the nutritional adequacy of a low-FODMAP diet.
Methods
Subjects attended a dietitian-led, education class prior to initiation of a 6-week, low-FODMAP diet. At baseline and bi-weekly, subjects completed an IBS-Symptom Severity Scale questionnaire (IBS-SSS). Diet assessments (3-day diet record) were collected at baseline and during week 2. Compliance was assessed by using high-FODMAP food checklists.
Analysis
Dietary intake analyzed using the Nutrition Data System for Research software, utilized paired samples t-tests and ANOVA with repeated measures to assess changes in nutritional intake and symptom severity, respectively. Significance was defined as p-value<0.05.
Results
Complete data was available for 15 of 35 subjects. All subjects (n=15) had a clinical response (reduction of 50 points on IBS-SSS) with the majority of symptom improvement between baseline and week two (n=13; p=0.001). There was a statistically significant reduction in grams of carbohydrates (p=0.031), grains (p=0.048) and dairy (p=0.010) while following a low FODMAP diet. Several micronutrients (calcium, iron, folate, vitamin C, and vitamin D) were below the recommended dietary allowance for
Conclusions
Our findings support a two-week elimination of FODMAPs may be optimal for achieving symptom relief. The high dropout rate and poor compliance highlight the need to assess and report dietary compliance in future interventions to gain insight into the efficacy of a low FODMAP diet.
Funding source
None