Who are at risk of haemorrhoidal disease?

In young- and middle-aged adults, haemorrhoidal disease more commonly arises in women, older people, ever-smokers, and hypertensives, reports a recent Korean study.

Researchers cross-sectionally assessed 194,620 healthy participants (mean age 42.2 years, 125,435 men) who underwent complete health screening with colonoscopy from 2011 to 2017. The study aimed to identify risk factors for haemorrhoidal disease, looking at lifestyle factors, gastrointestinal symptoms, anthropometric measurements, and medical and birth history.

A total of 32,347 participants were diagnosed with haemorrhoidal disease, yielding a prevalence rate of 16.6 percent. Haemorrhoidal disease was significantly more common among women (17.2 percent vs 16.3 percent; p<0.001), particularly among parous women (adjusted odds ratio [OR], 1.06, 95 percent confidence interval [CI], 1.02–1.10).

Nulliparous women, in contrast, were less likely to develop haemorrhoidal disease than men (OR, 0.92, 95 percent CI, 0.86–0.98).

Age also emerged as a significant correlate of haemorrhoidal disease (p_trend<0.001), such that those aged 50–59 years (adjusted OR, 1.99, 95 percent CI, 1.87–2.13) and 60–70 years (adjusted OR, 2.06, 95 percent CI, 1.91–2.22) were around twice as likely to develop the condition than those aged 20–29 years.

Those who were current (adjusted OR, 1.06, 95 percent CI, 1.02–1.10) and former (adjusted OR, 1.05, 95 percent CI, 1.01–1.09) smokers were likewise at an increased risk of haemorrhoidal disease than never smokers. The same was true for participants with hypertension (adjusted OR, 1.04, 95 percent CI, 1.02–1.07; p=0.001).