Abstract: Objective To explore the commonly used foods for senile constipation and the treatment rules of Chinese medicine diet therapy for constipation with different syndromes based on the Three Major Books. Methods Diet-therapy prescriptions for treating senile constipation in Dictionary of Traditional Chinese Medicine Prescriptions, Full Records of Food Therapy Recipes of TCM and Dictionary of Chinese Medicinal Diet were collected. The information of source, composition, TCM types were extracted. Excel 2019 was used for frequency analysis, and SPSS Modeler 18.0 for association analysis. Results One hundred and five dietary prescriptions were collected. Common dosage forms were porridge（32.4%） and soup（18.1%）. Eighty-eight kinds of food were included. Japonica rice (10.2%), and honey (7.1%) were the most commonly used food. Tonic homology of medicine and food substances（20.3%）were used more frequently in senile constipation treatment; In terms of food performance, the properties were mainly flat（34.1%） and warm（31.8%）. The flavors were commonly sweet（63.1%）; The spleen（20.3%）, stomach（18.6%） and lung meridians（18.6%） were in the majority. The main types of senile constipation were constipation with qi deficiency (28.6%). Perilla, japonica rice, and cannabis were the common food combinations for constipation with qi deficiency; Spinach, and Japonica for constipation with blood deficiency; Milk, honey, and sesame for constipation with yin deficiency; Sheep kidney, and desert living cistanche for constipation with yang deficiency; Bunge cherry seed, and coix seed for constipation with qi stagnation; and honeysuckle and honey for heat-type constipation. Conclusion Ancient and modern doctors prefer to porridge when applying Chinese medicine food therapy for constipation in the elderly. The principle of treatment is to supplement deficiency and lubricate intestinal tract to pass stool. Attentions are paid to regulating the balance of the rise and fall of the qi, and choosing food according to syndrome differentiation, which has certain guiding significance for clinical dietary care of senile constipation.

Key words: senile constipation, data mining, traditional Chinese medicine diet-therapy, treatment law, syndrome differentiation