Association between dinner-to-bed time and gastro-esophageal reflux disease.
OBJECTIVE
It is generally recommended that patients with gastro-esophageal reflux disease (GERD) refrain from eating within 3 h of going to sleep. In addition to a remarkable lack of supporting clinical evidence, whether GERD patients have shorter dinner-to-bed time is unknown. This study was designed to determine a possible association between dinner-to-bed time and GERD, compared with healthy adults.


METHODS
In a matched case-control study, we enrolled 147 GERD patients, and age- and sex-matched 294 controls without GERD symptoms such as heartburn and acid regurgitation during the previous year. Dinner-to-bed time, defined as the time intervals until going to bed after finishing eating dinner, was examined by a self-report questionnaire. Logistic regression was used to calculate odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) for GERD.


RESULTS
After adjustment for smoking habits, drinking habits, and body mass index, shorter dinner-to-bed time was significantly associated with an increased OR of GERD (p < 0.0001) and the OR for patients whose dinner-to-bed time was less than 3 h was 7.45 (95% CI 3.38-16.4) compared with patients whose dinner-to-bed time was 4 h or more. These observations were consistent in both patients with non-erosive GERD and erosive esophagitis, and there was no significant difference in dinner-to-bed time intervals between non-erosive GERD and erosive esophagitis.


CONCLUSIONS
In this matched case-control study, shorter dinner-to-bed time was significantly associated with an increased OR for GERD.
Fujiwara
Yasuhiro
Y
Department of Gastroenterology, Osaka City University, Graduate School of Medicine, Osaka, Japan.
Machida
Ai
A
Watanabe
Yoko
Y
Shiba
Masatsugu
M
Tominaga
Kazunari
K
Watanabe
Toshio
T
Oshitani
Nobuhide
N
Higuchi
Kazuhide
K
Arakawa
Tetsuo
T
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001513:Beds; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D016001:Confidence Intervals; D004435:Eating; D004942:Esophagitis, Peptic / Q000517:prevention & control; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D005764:Gastroesophageal Reflux / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016017:Odds Ratio; D011336:Probability; D012016:Reference Values; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D013997:Time Factors