Psychological comorbidities are more prevalent amongst pregnant and postpartum patients with irritable bowel syndrome.

BACKGROUND: There is a lack of data on the epidemiology of IBS in pregnant and postpartum patients in the United States.

METHODS: A retrospective claims analysis was conducted in a cohort of 1,618,379 patients with ≥1 delivery hospitalization between 2013-2019 utilizing ICD-9 and ICD-10 codes after merging inpatient and outpatient claims. Obstetric, psychological, and other medical comorbidities were also examined.

KEY RESULTS: The prevalence of IBS in our cohort was 1.38%. Pregnant and postpartum patients with IBS were more likely to have psychological comorbidities including depression (OR 2.93, CI 2.83-3.03), postpartum depression (OR 3.00, CI 2.91-3.09), and anxiety (OR 3.74, CI 3.64-3.84). They were also more likely to have migraines (OR 3.04, CI 2.94-3.15) and connective tissue disease or autoimmune disease (OR 3.54, CI 3.22-3.89).

CONCLUSION: The prevalence of IBS in pregnant and postpartum patients in a large claims database was 1.38%. Pregnant and postpartum patients with IBS have a higher odd of psychological comorbidities in addition to medical comorbidities such as migraines, connective tissue, and autoimmune disease. Future studies should focus on validating and characterizing the impact and directionality of co-existing comorbidities on IBS severity and the development of new-onset IBS during pregnancy and the postpartum period.