BMC GastroenterologyNov 10, 2026, 17:19 GMT

Constipation-linked death rates rose in the United States

Death rates adjusted for age rose from 0.26 in 1999 to 0.55 in 2024, with faster increases among men.

Paper by Eshal Atif, Vishan Das, Abdul Moeez Awais, +6Akef S. Obeidat · Alfaisal University

Figure 1. Overall and sex-stratified age-adjusted mortality rates (per 100,000) for constipation-associated mortality among US adults aged ≥ 25 years, 1999–2024, with the provisional 2025 value shown as a… — Figure 1. Overall and sex-stratified age-adjusted mortality rates (per 100,000) for constipation-associated mortality among US adults aged ≥ 25 years, 1999–2024, with the…Overall and sex-stratified age-adjusted mortality rates (per 100,000) for constipation-associated mortality among US adults aged ≥ 25 years, 1999–2024, with the provisional 2025 value shown as a dashed segment with an open marker.Atif et al.

Our read

Populations

Studied:: Cross-sectional study of 22,237 US adults aged ≥ 25 years
What changed:: Age-adjusted constipation-linked death rates rose from 0.26 to 0.55 per 100,000 between 1999 and 2024
The catch:: Improved death-certificate coding over time could inflate the apparent rise in mortality

Editor of record: Boris Djordjevic · AgingResearch.News

Paper

US adults aged 25 and older accounted for 22,237 deaths mentioning constipation in a serial cross-sectional analysis of national death certificates from 1999–2024. The researchers counted constipation listed anywhere on a certificate, not just as the underlying cause—the condition that began the chain of events leading to death.

Age-adjusted rates stayed stable through 2012, then rose. Rates increased among women and men, faster among men, and among adults aged 45–64 and 65 or older. Constipation appeared as a contributing cause more often than as the underlying cause. Institutional settings accounted for 75.4% of deaths. Dementia was also recorded in 23.4%, and complications in 37.4%.

Why it matters

Constipation in older adults can involve serious complications, including bowel perforation and sepsis, a life-threatening response to infection. The authors called for standardized bowel-care routines in high-risk settings.

Caveats

The analysis depended on constipation being recorded on death certificates; deaths without that entry were not counted, even if constipation played a role.

From the paper

Result

The overall AAMR rose from 0.26 per 100,000 (95% CI 0.23–0.28) in 1999 to 0.55 (0.53–0.58) in 2024, an average annual increase of 2.68% (95% CI 2.10–3.26; P < 0.001).

Results, Overall trends

Limitation

The design was ecological and cross-sectional; therefore, no individual-level inference was possible, and we could not adjust for comorbidities, medication regimens, or constipation severity owing to the aggregate nature of the data.

Strengths and limitations

Quoted word for word from the full text on link.springer.com.