To measure perceived gastrointestinal symptoms, we used the tool modified and supplemented by Jeon by adding questions of Nakamura et al on insufficiency experienced after surgery to the Gastrointestinal Symptom Rating Scale developed by Svedlund et al. The tool consists of 17 questions: 15 on the subdomains of abdominal pain, reflux symptoms, dyspepsia, diarrheal symptoms, and constipation-related symptoms and 2 questions not belonging to any subdomain. The questions are scored on a 7-point Likert scale from no discomfort (1) to very serious discomfort (7), and higher scores indicate that the respondent has experienced many symptoms.
Cronbach's a was .80 at the time of development, .87 in Jeon's study, and .88 in the present study.