Stool frequency

Method

Number of stools passed per 24 hours, recorded in a participant- or caregiver-completed bowel diary over a stated observation period. The diary duration, and whether stool form was scored separately on the Bristol Stool Form Scale, are recorded on the edge.

The method is part of the endpoint identity. Studies measuring the same quantity by a different method are held as separate endpoints.

Notes

Direction is set for the acute diarrhoea literature these papers come from, where fewer stools is better; IN A CONSTIPATION TRIAL THE SAME NUMBER IMPROVES BY RISING, so the population must be on the edge or the sign inverts. Its near-misses are diarrhoea OCCURRENCE, a binary event, and diarrhoea DURATION, days to resolution, reported in the same trials: three separate endpoints that dissociate, and PMID 38409162 found frequency moved while duration did not. Distinct again from CAT:outcome/gastrointestinal-adverse-event-incidence, where loose stools are a treatment HARM rather than the treated disease.