The Rome Foundation Global Epidemiology study: Research opportunities national and worldwide

The Rome Foundation embarked on an ambitious multi-year, multinational population-based study to evaluate the prevalence of Rome IV-defined DGBI and their biopsychosocial impact on a worldwide scale. The consistency of the study findings attests to the scientific rigor of this effort, as evident in the publications that resulted from this international study. Dr. Sperber and colleagues report a subanalysis on the Rome IV Global Epidemiology internet survey of the 2012 adults in Israel. These data determined the national prevalence of Rome IV-defined DGBIs, and their associated healthcare utilization and sociodemographic and psychosocial variables. Importantly, they also permitted seamless comparison of the data in the rest of the world. The Israeli study highlights some of the strengths of the Global Epidemiology Study: the 2 respondents had a geographical spread representative of the country. The questionnaire in Israel was available to the participants online in four different languages used by the population in Israel: The database of the study is now available through the Rome Foundation Research Institute for use by academic and industry researchers. This unique gift from the Rome Foundation to the scientific community no doubt will further enhance our understanding of disorders of gut-brain interaction.