title: Heartburn and regurgitation have different impacts on life quality of patients with gastroesophageal reflux disease.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To investigate the impact of heartburn and regurgitation on the quality of life among patients with gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD).
  
  
  METHODS
  Data from patients with GERD, who were diagnosed according to the Montreal definition, were collected between January 2009 and July 2010. The enrolled patients were assigned to a heartburn or a regurgitation group, and further assigned to an erosive esophagitis (EE) or a non-erosive reflux disease (NERD) subgroup, depending on the predominant symptoms and endoscopic findings, respectively. The general demographic data, the scores of the modified Chinese version of the GERDQ and the Short-form 36 (SF-36) questionnaire scores of these groups of patients were compared.
  
  
  RESULTS
  About 108 patients were classified in the heartburn group and 124 in the regurgitation group. The basic characteristics of the two groups were similar, except for male predominance in the regurgitation group. Patients in the heartburn group had more sleep interruptions (22.3% daily vs 4.8% daily, P = 0.021), more eating or drinking problems (27.8% daily vs 9.7% daily, P = 0.008), more work interferences (11.2% daily vs none, P = 0.011), and lower SF-36 scores (57.68 vs 64.69, P = 0.042), than patients in the regurgitation group did. Individuals with NERD in the regurgitation group had more impaired daily activities than those with EE did.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  GERD patients with heartburn or regurgitation predominant had similar demographics, but those with heartburn predominant had more severely impaired daily activities and lower general health scores. The NERD cases had more severely impaired daily activity and lower scores than the EE ones did.
authors.affiliation: Shou-Wu Lee, Han-Chung Lien, Teng-Yu Lee, Sheng-Shun Yang, Hong-Jeh Yeh, Chi-Sen Chang, Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Department of Internal Medicine, Taichung Veterans General Hospital, Taichung 40242, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Shou-Wu
authors.initials: SW
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: Shou-Wu Lee, Han-Chung Lien, Teng-Yu Lee, Sheng-Shun Yang, Hong-Jeh Yeh, Chi-Sen Chang, Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Department of Internal Medicine, Taichung Veterans General Hospital, Taichung 40242, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Han-Chung
authors.initials: HC
authors.lastname: Lien
authors.affiliation: Shou-Wu Lee, Han-Chung Lien, Teng-Yu Lee, Sheng-Shun Yang, Hong-Jeh Yeh, Chi-Sen Chang, Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Department of Internal Medicine, Taichung Veterans General Hospital, Taichung 40242, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Teng-Yu
authors.initials: TY
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: Shou-Wu Lee, Han-Chung Lien, Teng-Yu Lee, Sheng-Shun Yang, Hong-Jeh Yeh, Chi-Sen Chang, Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Department of Internal Medicine, Taichung Veterans General Hospital, Taichung 40242, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Sheng-Shun
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: Shou-Wu Lee, Han-Chung Lien, Teng-Yu Lee, Sheng-Shun Yang, Hong-Jeh Yeh, Chi-Sen Chang, Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Department of Internal Medicine, Taichung Veterans General Hospital, Taichung 40242, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Hong-Jeh
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Yeh
authors.affiliation: Shou-Wu Lee, Han-Chung Lien, Teng-Yu Lee, Sheng-Shun Yang, Hong-Jeh Yeh, Chi-Sen Chang, Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Department of Internal Medicine, Taichung Veterans General Hospital, Taichung 40242, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Chi-Sen
authors.initials: CS
authors.lastname: Chang
mesh_terms: D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D000328:Adult; D017281:Cost of Illness; D016099:Endoscopy, Gastrointestinal; D004942:Esophagitis, Peptic / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology* / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D005764:Gastroesophageal Reflux / Q000150:complications* / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology; D006304:Health Status; D006356:Heartburn / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology* / Q000523:psychology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011446:Prospective Studies; D011788:Quality of Life; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
keywords: Erosive esophagitis; Gastroesophageal reflux disease; Gender; Life quality; Non-erosive reflux disease