In order to compare the food habits and defecation tendencies by region, a questionnaire survey was conducted of 1722 college women (18-20 years of age) living in Sapporo (146), Sendai (183), Osaka (1214), and Kumamoto (179).
(1) When questioned about food habits, less than 58.5% of the respondents in the four groups considered their food intake to be sufficient to maintain their health. In regard to knowledge about their food intake requirements, the positive response was the highest in Sendai (85.8%), followed by Kumamoto (58.2%) and Osaka (50.9%) with the lowest in Sapporo (41.1%) (p<0.01, among the four groups).
(2) The students in Sendai, Osaka, Kumamoto and Sapporo, 96.2%, 93.5%, 92.9% and 92.5%, respectively, considered that constipation could affect their health (p<0.05, among four groups). The percentage of those with regular bowel movements every day, tended to decrease in the order of Osaka (22.2%), Sapporo (21.2%) and Sendai (20.8%), with the lowest in Kumamoto (12.3%). Bowel movements of less than three times a week were reported by 24.7% in Sapporo, 24.0% in Sendai, 23.2% in Osaka and 22.3% in Kumamoto (p<0.01, among the four groups).
(3) Of those who defecated every day, in terms of time of day, the percentage was high between waking and after breakfast, with the highest percentage in Kumamoto (72.8%) and the lowest in Sapporo (61.2%) (p<0.05, among the four groups). For subjects that responded that they should have a bowel movement every day, the highest percentage was in Osaka (91.0%) and the lowest was in Sapporo (83.9%) (p<0.05, among the four groups).
