title: The importance of socioeconomic factors in symptoms of heartburn.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Patients' socioeconomic status is rarely assessed during medical consultations.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To correlate patients' socioeconomic conditions with symptoms of heartburn.
  
  
  METHODS
  1184 patients who answered a questionnaire in three cities on the coast of the State of Sä Paulo, Brazil, were evaluated prospectively. Socioeconomic status was assessed using several criteria: number of bathrooms, consumer goods present at home, health conditions at home, comfort (cars and/or home helps), monthly family income and head of household's educational level.
  
  
  RESULTS
  583 patients (49.2%) reported occurrences of heartburn over the 30 days preceding the consultation, with frequencies ranging from five to thirty episodes over this period. Among patients from the city of Guarujá (low socioeconomic condition), 9.7% had never felt heartburn, while 65.7% reported occurrences, reaching statistical significance in relation to patients of medium socioeconomic condition (city of Sä Vicente) (p = 0.012). There was no difference between patients from medium socioeconomic condition and patients from Santos (high socioeconomic condition) (p = 0.997). There was a statistically significant difference in occurrence of heartburn between the patients with high socioeconomic condition and those of low socioeconomic condition (p = 0.002).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The least favored socioeconomic status patients, as confirmed according to a variety of socioeconomic factors, presented greater incidence of heartburn than did the most favored social class.
authors: Department of Gastroenterology - Clinical Gastroenterology. Av Dr Enéas de Carvalho Aguiar 255, 9th floor - room 9159, São Paulo, Brazil. tnavarro@usp.br
authors: F
authors: F
authors: Navarro-Rodríguez
authors: R C M
authors: RC
authors: Chaves
authors: R A
authors: RA
authors: Dib
authors: T
authors: T
authors: Navarro-Rodríguez
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D005260:Female; D006356:Heartburn / Q000175:diagnosis*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D055815:Young Adult