DBoPS

The Association between Diet and Bowel Preparation

Dr. Quatromoni is a co-investigator on this interdisciplinary NIH/NIDDK-funded project lead by Principal Investigator, Dr. Brian Jacobson, Associate Professor of Medicine at Boston University School of Medicine and Associate Director of Endoscopy Services at Boston Medical Center.

Colorectal cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death in the United States, underscoring the importance of screening colonoscopies. Patients with inadequate bowel preparation risk the inconvenience of a canceled and rescheduled procedure or worse, a precancerous lesion missed due to poor visualization. Guidelines for dietary restrictions leading up to colonoscopy vary widely between centers. The majority involve a clear liquid diet on the day before the procedure, but the remainder of the dietary instructions are neither evidence-based nor are they culturally-specific.

The Specific Aims of the DBoPS study are to:

  1. measure the association between bowel preparation quality and the foods ingested during the three days preceding colonoscopy to inform the development of evidence-based and culturally-appropriate patient instructions
  1. develop and validate a novel bowel preparation rating scale designed for nutrition-related bowel preparation research.

Pre-colonoscopy dietary restrictions vary widely and lack evidence-based guidance. We
investigated whether fiber and various other foods/macronutrients consumed during the 3 days before colonoscopy are associated with bowel preparation quality.
Read about the findings of the study