This study was undertaken to estimate the usefulness of a questionnaire on an objective constipation. We used various symptoms such as bowel movement frequency, straining, hard stools, and incomplete evacuation as a definition of functional constipation. The subjective data was collected using a questionnaire concerning the constipation, and the objective data was collected for one week by estimations of the bowel movement frequency, straining, hard stools and incomplete evacuation. Sixty-five university students (9 males, 56 females) participated in this study. Following results were obtained : 1. Mean bowel movement frequencies in the subjective and the objective data were 5.5±1.4/ week and 7.9±4.0/week, respectively ; thus indicated that the objective data was more frequent than the subjective data. 2. Based on the subjective and the objective data, participants were divided into three groups each : Regular stools, Slight constipation, and Constipation. The numbers of the three groups in the objective data corresponded well with those in the subjective data. Then, the rate of correspondence was 83.1% . These results confirm that the subjective data collected from the questionnaire is useful for the estimation of functional constipation.

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