Comparison of presentation and impact on quality of life of gastroesophageal reflux disease between young and old adults in a Chinese population

AIM:To compare the presentation and impact on qual-ity of life of gastroesophageal reflux disease(GERD)in old and young age groups.METHODS:Data from adult patients with GERD di-agnosed by endoscopic and symptomic characteristics were collected between January and November 2009.Exclusion criteria included combined peptic ulcers,ma-lignancy,prior surgery,antacid medication for more than 2 mo,and pregnancy.Enrolled patients were assigned to the elderly group if they were 65 years or older,or the younger group if they were under 65 years.They had completed the GERD impact scale,the Chinese GERD questionnaire,and the SF-36 question-naire.Data from other cases without endoscopic f ind-ings or symptoms were collected and these subjects comprised the control group in our study.RESULTS:There were 111 patients with GERD and 44 normal cases:78(70.3%)and 33 patients(29.7%)were in the younger and elderly groups,respectively.There were more female patients(60.3%)in the younger group,and more males(72.7%)in the elderly group.The younger cases had more severe and fre-quent typical symptoms than the elderly patients.Sig-nif icantly more impairment of daily activities was noted in the younger patients compared with the elderly group,except for physical functioning.CONCLUSION:Elderly patients with GERD were pre-dominantly male with rare presentation of typical symp-toms,and had less impaired quality of life compared with younger patients in a Chinese population.

Impact of body mass index and gender on quality of life in patients with gastroesophageal reflux disease

AIM： To investigate the symptom presentation and quality of life in obese Chinese patients with gastro- esophageal reflux disease （GERD）. MKTHODS： Data from patients diagnosed with GERD according to the Montreal definition, were collected between January 2009 to March 2010. The enrolled patients were assigned to the normal [body mass in- dex （BMI） 〈 25 kg/m2], overweight （25-30 kg/m2）, and obese （BMI 〉 30 kg/m2） groups. General demographic data, endoscopic findings, and quality of life of the three groups of patients were analyzed and compared.and 15 patients were classified in the normal, over- weight, and obese, respectively. There was significantly more erosive esophagitis （73.3% vs 64.3% vs 39.2%, P = 0.002）, hiatal hernia （60% vs 33.9% vs 16.7%, P = 0.001）, and males （73.3% vs 73.2% vs 32.4%, P = 0.001） in the obese cases. The severity and frequency of heartburn, not acid regurgitation, was positively cor- related with BMI, with a significant association in men, but not in women. Obese patients were prone to have low quality of life scores, with obese women having the lowest scores for mental health. CONCLUSION： In patients with GERD, obese men had the most severe endoscopic and clinical presenta- tion. Obese women had the poorest mental health.