Prevalence of Functional Constipation and Relationship with Dietary Habits in 3- to 8-Year-Old Children in Japan

Table 4

Relationship between functional constipation and consumption of energy and nutrients.

Mean amount of intake per day	Unit	FC	Non-FC	value
				t-test	ANCOVA
Energy and nutrients
Total meal weight	g	1606.3 ± 466.9	1616.2 ± 457.9	0.606
Total calories	kcal	1421.8 ± 417.0	1395.2 ± 385.6	0.122	0.128
Water content per meal	g	1298.2 ± 393.7	1312.5 ± 390.8	0.380	0.378
Protein	g	48.4 ± 14.0	48.1 ± 13.5	0.631	0.666
Fat	g	45.9 ± 13.6	44.4 ± 12.9	0.005	0.007
Carbohydrates	g	198.9 ± 70.2	196.2 ± 65.0	0.346	0.376
Calcium	mg	529.6 ± 204.4	519.5 ± 198.1	0.272	0.269
Magnesium	mg	176.6 ± 54.3	177.3 ± 52.6	0.779	0.736
Phosphorous	mg	808.9 ± 257.2	801.7 ± 248.5	0.490	0.513
Soluble dietary fibre	g	1.88 ± 0.7	1.92 ± 0.7	0.170	0.164
Insoluble dietary fibre	g	5.97 ± 2.0	6.13 ± 2.0	0.062	0.057
Total dietary fibre	g	8.02 ± 2.8	8.22 ± 2.8	0.074	0.069
NaCl	g	9.22 ± 2.4	9.27 ± 2.4	0.614	0.605
Juice	g	94.2 ± 127.5	80.9 ± 98.8	0.009	0.002
Water including tea	g	301.6 ± 168.0	318.2 ± 168.4	0.018	0.015
Nutritional equivalent
Total meal weight	g/100 kcal	114.7 ± 20.6	117.3 ± 21.0	0.003	0.004
Water content per meal	g/100 kcal	93.0 ± 20.4	95.5 ± 20.9	0.004	0.006
Protein	g/100 kcal	3.4 ± 0.5	3.5 ± 0.5	0.090	0.111
Fat	g/100 kcal	3.3 ± 0.6	3.2 ± 0.6	0.019	0.019
Carbohydrate	g/100 kcal	13.9 ± 1.6	14.0 ± 1.5	0.127	0.123
Calcium	mg/100 kcal	37.5 ± 10.9	37.3 ± 10.3	0.793	0.720
Magnesium	mg/100 kcal	12.5 ± 2.0	12.8 ± 2.0	0.002	0.003
Phosphorous	mg/100 kcal	57.3 ± 10.6	57.7 ± 9.9	0.346	0.395
Soluble dietary fibre	mg/100 kcal	134.0 ± 3.6	138.7 ± 3.7	0.003	0.003
Insoluble dietary fibre	mg/100 kcal	424.5 ± 9.1	442.3 ± 9.9	0.000	0.000
Total dietary fibre/day	mg/100 kcal	570.3 ± 128.8	593.5 ± 138.4	0.000	0.000
NaCl	mg/100 kcal	667.00 ± 137.9	680.7 ± 136.2	0.016	0.023

ANCOVA: analysis with age as a covariate (Bonferroni). Data are shown as the mean ± standard deviation.