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Article Type

Letter to the Editor

Abstract

I read with interest the study by Qora et al. [1] on the effect of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) on health‑related quality of life (QOL) in Qaliobeya Governorate, Egypt. The authors found that QOL was affected by the sex of patients, age less than 30 years, being underweight, number of IBS attacks, and associated symptoms like dyspepsia, stomach pain, and flatulence [1]. I presume that these results ought to be interpreted cautiously. This is based on the presence of the following methodological limitation related to IBS‑QOL tool employed in the study. The employed IBS‑QOL tool in the study is old, as it was set two decades ago [2]. Moreover, a systematic review study showed that the tool demonstrated moderate positive evidence for internal consistency and reliability and that there was conflicting evidence for its underlying structural validity necessitating further elucidation of the factor structure or dimensionality of the IBS‑QOL [3]. In 2016, a new IBS‑QOL tool has been developed. Evaluation of it showed that it was easily comprehensible and short, and its internal consistency reliability and test‑retest reliability were satisfactory, with a Cronbach’s  and intraclass correlation coefficient of 0.93 and 0.88, respectively, rendering it feasible for implementation in the clinical field and researches [4]. I presume that employing the new IBS‑QOL tool could yield more accurate results.

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