Prevalence of gastro-esophageal reflux in diabetic patients at a tertiary hospital in Central Saudi Arabia.

OBJECTIVES

To estimate the prevalence of gastro-esophageal reflux disease (GERD) among diabetic patients and to investigate GERD's potential association with diabetic complications, and patients' sociodemographic and clinical characteristics.

METHODS

This cross-sectional study used the GERD questionnaire (GerdQ) in 403 diabetic patients attending the outpatient clinics at King Khalid University Hospital, King Saud University Medical City, King Saud University; a tertiary hospital in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, between January and February 2019. On the basis of a cuto GerdQ score of 8, we distinguished GERD and non-GERD groups.

RESULTS

Gastro-esophageal reflux disease prevalence was 44.9%. Of the diabetic patients with GERD, 76.8% were female (pless than 0.001). Gastro-esophageal re ux disease patients were older (mean age: 55.27, p=0.038) and had a slightly higher body mass index (BMI) than non-GERD (32.04 versus, 30.20 p=0.006), respectively. Smokers in the GERD group were 1.7% versus 7.2% in the non- GERD group (p=0.007). Peripheral numbness (p=0.023) and nephropathy (p=0.041) were more prevalent in patients with GERD, while myocardial infarction was more prevalent in non-GERD subjects (p=0.038). On multi variable analysis, the only independent GERD risk factors were female gender (p=0.013) and age more than 65 years (p=0.007).

CONCLUSION

Gastro-esophageal reflux disease prevalence in diabetic patients was 45%. Diabetic patients with GERD were more often female and older than 65 years. None of the other tested factors (BMI, smoking status, diabetes mellitus duration, therapeutic plan, or diabetic complications) showed signi cant di erence between GERD and non-GERD groups.