The perspective of the patient

The International Foundation for Functional Gastrointestinal Disorders (IFFGD) is a nonprofit education and research group. Founded in 1991, the IFFGD provides information and advice to patients around the world with fecal incontinence and other gastrointestinal disorders, educates physicians through medical symposia and other activities, funds and undertakes research, and provides testimony to Congress about the necessity of furthering research activities related to fecal incontinence through the National Institutes of Health. The IFFGD advocates research directed toward more comprehensive identification of quality-of-life issues associated with fecal incontinence and improved assessment and communication of treatment outcomes related to quality of life, standardization of scales to measure incontinence severity and quality of life, assessment of the utility of diagnostic tests for affecting management strategies and treatment outcomes, development of new drug compounds offering new treatment approaches to fecal incontinence, development and testing of strategies for primary prevention of fecal incontinence associated with childbirth, and further understanding of the process of stigmatization as it applies to the experience of individuals with fecal incontinence.