Clinical and life style variables in functional dyspepsia and its sub-types.

BACKGROUND

Several definitions and classifications have been designed to characterize functional dyspepsia (FD), the recent one being the ROME III criteria. There have been many studies in the western population which aimed at identifying the risk factors involved in functional dyspepsia. There are fewer studies from south Asian countries.

AIM

To determine the clinical and life style variables influencing functional dyspepsia and its sub-types in patients attending a tertiary care referral centre in the Indian subcontinent.

METHODS

Consecutive patients with upper gastrointestinal symptoms including, epigastric pain/burning, early satiety, postprandial fullness, heartburn and/or chest discomfort, alone or in combination, on more than 3 occasions a week, within the preceding 6 months and with a normal endoscopy were included in the study. Demographic details and the symptom profile including frequency of symptoms were recorded in a pre-structured, validated, modified proforma as per the ROME III criteria and analyzed to test the study hypothesis.

RESULTS

Of the 170 patients, the median age of presentation was 49 yrs and the male to female ratio was 0.62 (65:105). The mean BMI was 23.8 kg/m2. Women had a higher BMI than men. More than half of the study subjects were from the low socio-economic groups.77.6% had ulcer type symptoms and showed a decreasing trend with age. It was more common in patients with higher per capita income. Reflux type comprised of 60.6% with predominance in women. 7% had early satiety and 13.5% had postprandial fullness. Nausea and belch as an isolated (associated) phenomenon comprised of 18.8% and 17.1% respectively. None of the lifestyle variables or demographic characteristics showed a significant influence on symptom occurrence.

CONCLUSIONS

There was a considerable overlap of various sub-types of dyspepsia. There were no differences in life style characteristics or significant risk factors in the various subtypes of dyspepsia.