The Prevalence of Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease Associated with Age and Body Mass Index in Healthy Koreans

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: The prevalence of obesity is increasing year after year in Korean; and gastroesophageal reflux disease(GERD) is increasing in this population as well. The aim of this study is to assess the association between age, body mass index(BMI) and GERD in healthy Korean adults. METHODS: Analysis was done on 1,016 subjects who had not had malignancy, uncontrolled metabolic disease, enteric surgery and organic esophageal disease. They completed a questionnaire that included past history and reflux symptoms. Endoscopy was performed by two gastroenterologists who were not given any patient information. Existence of GERD was determined by the esophageal syndrome criteria of the Montreal guidelines. Subjects were categorized by BMI, initially as underweight, normal(18.5 or =25) group(12.1%) showed a meaningful increment in the prevalence of erosive GERD compared to the non-obese(BMI<25) group(6.2%)(p value 0.002). CONCLUSION: The prevalence of GERD in healthy Korean adult subjects was not closely associated with obesity and age[according to BMI]; however, erosive GERD was found to have a strong association with obesity.