Measurement of abdominal symptoms by validated questionnaire: a 3‐month recall timeframe as recommended by Rome III is not superior to a 1‐year recall timeframe

BACKGROUND: Rome III incorporates changes in the definition of functional gastrointestinal disorder that involve a 3-month recall time for symptoms, rather than 1-year. AIM: To validate a new version of the Talley-Bowel Disease Questionnaire (Talley-BDQ) and assess the impact of recall time period on the prevalence of symptoms. METHODS: A sample of community residents were randomly mailed a survey using 1-year (n = 396) or 3-month recall period (n = 374). We evaluated the reliability and the concurrent validity of the two versions of the questionnaire. The proportions of subjects reporting symptoms in the two versions were compared. RESULTS: The median (IQR) kappa on symptom-related questions was 0.70 (0.57-0.76) from the 1-year version and 0.66 (0.56-0.77) from the 3-month version. A median kappa of 0.39 (0.19-0.70) and 0.58 (0.39-0.73) was observed for concurrent validation of the 1-year and 3-month versions respectively. Except for gastro-oesophageal reflux symptoms, no differences were observed on the prevalence of clinically relevant symptoms. CONCLUSION: The revised Talley-BDQ is reliable, with excellent reproducibility and validity. There were few differences in reported symptom rates between the 3-month and 1-year recall time versions of the questionnaire. A 1-year recall time may more efficiently capture infrequent or subtle symptoms.