Abdominal obesity as a risk factor for the development of erosive esophagitis in subjects with a normal esophago-gastric junction.
OBJECTIVE
Obesity is reported to be associated with erosive esophagitis (EE). However, the temporal association of obesity and abdominal obesity with EE is unclear. We conducted this study to investigate the temporal association of obesity, especially abdominal obesity with EE.


METHODS
Among 1,182 subjects who underwent health screening examinations including upper endoscopy in both 2003 and 2006, a total 1,029 subjects with a normal esophagogastric junction on upper endoscopy in 2003 were enrolled. All subjects completed questionnaires and anthropometric measurements were obtained twice by trained personnels. The patients with newly developed EE were compared to the subjects without newly developed EE.


RESULTS
Among 1,029 subjects, 42 (4.1%) were newly diagnosed with EE and 82 (8.0%) with hiatal hernia. The mean body mass index (BMI) in both examinations was significantly different between the two groups based on the development of erosive esophagitis (p<0.05 in both examinations). The mean waist circumference (WC) in both examinations was also significantly different between the two groups (p<0.01 in both examinations). The multivariate analysis demonstrated that EE was not associated with the BMI in 2003 and the increase of BMI; however, it was associated with the WC in 2003 (Odds ratio, 7.21; 95% CI, 1.78 to 29.19; >90 cm vs <80 cm).


CONCLUSIONS
Our study showed that abdominal circumference is an independent risk factor for EE, demonstrating a temporal relationship between abdominal obesity and EE.
Koo
Ja Seol
JS
Department of Internal Medicine, Institute of Digestive Diseases and Nutrition, Korea University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
Lee
Sang Woo
SW
Park
Sun Min
SM
Jung
Sung Woo
SW
Yim
Hyung Joon
HJ
Park
Jong Jae
JJ
Chun
Hoon Jai
HJ
Lee
Hong Sik
HS
Choi
Jai Hyun
JH
Kim
Chang Duck
CD
Ryu
Ho Sang
HS