Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) is a common disorder with a high incidence rate in adults of 10 - 38%. The diagnosis and treatment of GERD are therefore important because the disease, in addition to the highly disturbing typical symptoms, has a series of known consequences. The presence of GERD may affect patients' quality of life, decrease functional activity, and increase the risk of esophageal carcinoma.
Although many investigators have reported the prevalence of erosive esophagitis, the prevalence of non-erosive reflux disease (NERD) has not been investigated in China.
A research article published in the issue 45 of the World Journal of Gastroenterology addresses this question. The research team led by Dr. You-Ming Li analyzed a spectrum of GERD subjects based on presenting symptoms and endoscopic findings.
One conclusion reported by the investigators is that of the 2231 recruited participants, 31.4% were diagnosed as having GERD, 10.6% were NERD patients, while 20.80% had objective findings of reflux esophagitis, including 19.5% patients with grade A or B reflux esophagitis, 0.90% with grade C and 0.40% with grade D.
Another conclusion is that old age, being male, having a moderate working burden, being divorced/widowed and heavy tea consumption remained significant independent risk factors for erosive esophagitis. Routine consumption of greasy food and constipation were considered significant independent risk factors for NERD.
GERD is one of the common GI diseases with a high occurrence rate in China, and its main associated factors include sex, anthropometrical variables and social-psychological characteristics.
Reference: Juan Du, Jiang Liu, Hong Zhang, Chao-Hui Yu, You-Ming Li. Risk factors for gastroesophageal reflux disease, reflux esophagitis and non-erosive reflux disease among Chinese patients undergoing upper gastrointestinal endoscopic examination. World J Gastroenterol 2007; 13(45): 6009-6015
http://www.wjgnet.com/1007-9327/13/6009.asp
Correspondence to: Professor Dr. You-Ming Li, Department of Gastroenterology, First Affiliated Hospital, College of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310003, Zhejiang Province, China. zlym@zju.edu.cn
Telephone: +86-571-87236603 Fax: +86-571-87236611
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World Journal of Gastroenterology (WJG), a leading international journal in gastroenterology and hepatology, has established a reputation for publishing first class research on esophageal cancer, gastric cancer, liver cancer, viral hepatitis, colorectal cancer, and H pylori infection for providing a forum for both clinicians and scientists. WJG has been indexed and abstracted in Current Contents/Clinical Medicine, Science Citation Index Expanded (also known as SciSearch) and Journal Citation Reports/Science Edition, Index Medicus, MEDLINE and PubMed, Chemical Abstracts, EMBASE/Excerpta Medica, Abstracts Journals, Nature Clinical Practice Gastroenterology and Hepatology, CAB Abstracts and Global Health. ISI JCR 2003-2000 IF: 3.318, 2.532, 1.445 and 0.993. WJG is a weekly journal published by WJG Press. The publication dates are the 7th, 14th, 21st, and 28th day of every month. The WJG is supported by The National Natural Science Foundation of China, No. 30224801 and No. 30424812, and was founded with the name of China National Journal of New Gastroenterology on October 1, 1995, and renamed WJG on January 25, 1998.
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