The Prevalence and Associated Factors of I-sarn Syndrome in Rural Community, Khon Kaen

Background: I-sarn syndrome (ISS) consists of multiple chronic complaints including: myofascial pain, back pain or lower abdominal pain, dyspepsia, poly-arthralgia, headaches, fatigue, history of dysuria, and/or any of these made worse by consuming bamboo shoot. Objectives: To determine the prevalence of ISS and their associated factors in rural community, Khon Kaen Province. Methods: A cross-sectional analytic study in 16 rural villages from 4 districts. Subjects, between 15 and 60 years of age, were randomly selected by multistage sampling. Results: 1,128 individuals were participated, 38% were male, 45% were older than 45 years and most of them were farmers (71.1%). Age-sex adjusted prevalence of ISS was 29.4%. Prevalence of myofascial pain, back pain/lower abdominal pain, dyspepsia, poly-arthralgia, headaches, fatigue, and dysuria was 33.7, 37.7, 29.9, 11.4, 39.8, 30.9 and 18.5%, respectively. The prevalence of people whose symptoms aggravated by bamboo shoot was 33.5%. ISS patient was significantly older, more debt, higher creatinine level, more frequent visited at health center and community hospital (p<0.01,  Mann-Whitney U test).When logistic regression was implemented,  subjects with ISS were more likely to be aggravated by bamboo shoot [adjusted OR; (95%CI)],[3.8;(2.2,6.9)], fermented rice noodles[1.55; (1.09,2.18)], beef or insect [1.96; (1.31,2.93)], have myofascial pain in relative [1.72; (1.31, 2.27)]. Conclusion: Three in ten of rural dwellers in Khon Kaen suffered from ISS and one in three had symptoms aggravated by bamboo shoots. Key words: bamboo shoot, multiple complaints, myofascial, dyspepsia, fermented noodle