A multi-centre, randomised trial to assess whether increased dietary fibre intake (using a fibre supplement or high-fibre foods) produces healthy bowel performance and reduces laxative requirement in free living patients on peritoneal dialysis.

What Was Tested

Researchers studied Laxatives in this randomized controlled trial publication.

Both consequences have an economic cost as well as contributing to a poor patient experience.

Who Took Part

According to the abstract, 41 patients were involved.

The age groups tagged for this paper are middle-aged adults and older adults, both men and women.

From this group 41 suitable patients with regular laxative use were identified and invited to enter the Intervention stage, Stage 2.

Patients were randomised into one of three intervention arms: high fibre supplement (HFS); high fibre diet (HFD) or placebo.

How the Study Was Run

The design is described as randomized and placebo-controlled.

Because people in this Laxatives study were split into groups at random, differences between the groups are less likely to reflect who happened to join each one.

Some patients received a placebo instead of Laxatives, giving a reference point.

What Was Measured

Topics PubMed links to this paper include Constipation, Dietary Fiber, Dietary Supplements, Drug Utilization, Kidney Failure, Chronic, Laxatives and Peritoneal Dialysis.

The authors tagged it with the keywords Nutrition/malnutrition and Self-management/self-care.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized and placebo-controlled study of Laxatives in 41 patients.

The abstract goes on to report its results in about 4 sentences; this page does not restate them, so read the paper for the findings and their limits.

The publication is from 2014 (Journal of renal care), a journal based in United States.

More context: all human trials.