Prevalence of diverticular disease, hiatus hernia, and pelvic phleboliths in black and white Americans.

Phleboliths, and especially diverticular disease and hiatus hernia, are rarer in developing countries than in economically more developed communities, but all three conditions were as common in Black as in White Americans. This finding suggests that they are due to environmental rather than to genetic causes. A deficient intake of dietary fibre may be the common factor predisposing to these three conditions.