Comparison of probiotic and lactulose treatments on children with functional constipation and determination of the effects of constipation treatment on quality of life

Chronic constipation is one of the most common pediatric gastrointestinal disorders. The emotional, behavioural and social problems due to longterm symptoms of constipation and their negative effects on quality of life (QoL) are well known. Poor compliance to traditional medical therapy and relapses have led researchers to focus on new treatment strategies. In this study, we aimed to compare the QoL of patients with functional constipation with that of healthy children, evaluate the effects of probiotic Lactobacillus reuteri (DSM 17938) and lactulose on treatment of functional constipation and the effects of treatment on their quality of life. Research data were analyzed with the statistics program SPSS version 17.0. Chi-square, Mc Nemar tests and t test were used for hypothetical analysis and differences between groups. Average score of QoL for healthy children was 72,7 %, while that of constipated children was 67,4 %. Abdominal pain and flatulence symptoms with probiotics group significantly improved compared with lactulose. Both treatments led to comparable improvement of QoL scores of patients. Improvement in the family perpectives for QoL showed more significance in the lactulose group. Our study revealed that, QoL of patients with functional constipation is poor when compared with healthy children, probiotics show comparable efficacy with lactulose on treatment of functional constipation and improvement on QoL but lactulose is more effective in satisfying families.