Table 3.2.4 Prevalence rates (expressed as percentages) of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) reported from various studies in the UK and in other Western countries

Country	City/region	Year of study*	Study size	Prevalence (% of population)†	Authors and reference
*Year before the year of publication is given, where the year of study was not specified; †ranges of prevalence refer to prevalence rates obtained using different criteria for diagnosing IBS.
UK studies:
UK	Avon	1979	301	13.6	Thompson WG and Heaton KW, 1980¹⁵⁷
UK	Hampshire	1991	1 620	22.0	Jones RH and Lydeard SE, 1992⁴³
UK	Bristol	1991	1 896	9.5	Heaton KW et al, 1992¹⁵⁵
UK	Teeside	1997	3 179	16.7	Kennedy TM and Jones RH, 2000¹⁵⁴
UK	Bristol	1995–7	3 111	2.5	Thompson WG et al, 2000¹⁵⁶
UK	Birmingham	2003	4 807	10.5	Wilson S et al, 2004¹⁵⁸
Other Western countries:
USA		1981	789	17.1	Drossman DA et al, 1982¹⁵⁹
USA		1983	566	15.0	Sandler RS et al, 1984¹⁶⁰
Italy	Umbria	1988	533	8.5	Gaburri M et al, 1989¹⁶¹
Japan		1988–89	231	25.0	Schlemper RJ et al, 1993¹⁶²
USA		1990	5 430	9.4	Drossman DA et al, 1993¹⁶³
The Netherlands		1991	500	9.0	Schlemper RJ et al, 1993¹⁶²
USA	Olmsted County	1992	643	8.5–20.4	Saito YA et al, 2000¹⁶⁴
Sweden	Osthammar	1988	1 290	14.0	Agreus L et al, 1995¹⁶⁵
Denmark	Glostrup	1993	4 581	6.6	Kay L et al, 1994¹⁶⁶
Australia	Penrith, Sydney	1996	3 240	4.4–13.6	Boyce PM et al, 2000¹⁶⁷
Spain		2000	2 000	2.1–12.1	Mearin F et al, 2001¹⁶⁸
France		2001	15 132	4.7	Dapoigny M et al, 2004¹⁶⁹
Canada		2001	1 149	12.1–13.5	Thompson WG et al, 2002¹⁷⁰
New Zealand	Dunedin	1998–99	980	3.3–18.8	Barbezat G et al, 2002¹⁷¹
Iceland		2000	2 000	30.9	Olafsdottir LB et al, 2005⁶⁴
USA	Olmsted County	2002	643	5.1–27.6	Saito YA et al, 2003¹⁷²