Turab Muhammad Sajeel, Awan Mustafa Asghar, Masroor Linta, Amir Khadija, Khan Mahnoor, Liaquat Afrose
College of Medicine, Shifa Tameer-E-Millat University Shifa College of Medicine, Islamabad, PAK.
Biochemistry, Shifa Tameer-E-Millat University Shifa College of Medicine, Islamabad, PAK.
Cureus. 2025 Feb 15;17(2):e79037. doi: 10.7759/cureus.79037. eCollection 2025 Feb.
Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) is a common complaint seen in medical clinics today, affecting countless people worldwide. Patients can present with a wide array of symptoms, ranging from classical complaints like heartburn and acid reflux to atypical cases like silent GERD. Recent advancements in diagnostic testing and imaging have aided in diagnosing and understanding GERD. Given the prevalence of GERD and stress within the confines of our society, it is pertinent to establish a correlation between these two, which this study aimed to investigate.
A cross-sectional study was conducted using the Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease Questionnaire (GERDQ), the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS), and the Student Stress Inventory (SSI), combined in a survey distributed to participants online. These included students from various healthcare institutes.
A total of 439 responses were analyzed, of which 262 (59.7%) were female and 177 (40.3%) were male. Of them, 319 (72.7%) were day scholars, and 120 (27.3%) were students living in hostel accommodation. The mean age was 20.5 years. Female participants had a significantly higher prevalence of GERD (16.4%, n = 43) than male participants (9.6%, n = 17) (p < 0.05). Similar trends were seen in both stress scales, with the female group showing a significantly higher proportion of high-stress individuals (p < 0.05). Program of study, age, accommodation, year of study, hours of sleep, and hours of study had no significant impact on the presence of GERD. However, when the same variables were analyzed against levels of stress, the mean hours of study and mean hours of sleep were significant in the SSI (p < 0.05). The high-stress group in the SSI had a significantly higher mean sleep duration (7.93 hours) and mean study duration (5.77 hours) than both the moderate-stress and low-stress groups.
Results of this study show that increased stress has a positive correlation with the prevalence of symptoms of GERD. Steps should be taken to reduce stress among medical students to alleviate such symptoms.
胃食管反流病（GERD）是当今诊所中常见的病症，影响着全球无数人。患者可能出现各种各样的症状，从烧心和反酸等典型症状到无症状性胃食管反流等非典型病例。诊断测试和成像技术的最新进展有助于诊断和了解胃食管反流病。鉴于胃食管反流病的患病率以及我们社会环境中的压力，确定两者之间的相关性很有必要，本研究旨在对此进行调查。
采用胃食管反流病问卷（GERDQ）、感知压力量表（PSS）和学生压力量表（SSI）进行横断面研究，将这些量表组合在一份在线分发给参与者的调查问卷中。参与者包括来自各个医疗保健机构的学生。
共分析了439份回复，其中262份（59.7%）为女性，177份（40.3%）为男性。其中，319份（72.7%）为走读生，120份（27.3%）为住校生。平均年龄为20.5岁。女性参与者的胃食管反流病患病率（16.4%，n = 43）显著高于男性参与者（9.6%，n = 17）（p < 0.05）。在两个压力量表中也观察到类似趋势，女性组中高压力个体的比例显著更高（p < 0.05）。学习课程、年龄、住宿情况、学习年份、睡眠时间和学习时间对胃食管反流病的存在没有显著影响。然而，当针对压力水平分析相同变量时，学生压力量表中的平均学习时间和平均睡眠时间具有显著意义（p < 0.05）。学生压力量表中的高压力组的平均睡眠时间（7.93小时）和平均学习时间（5.77小时）显著高于中度压力组和低压力组。
本研究结果表明，压力增加与胃食管反流病症状的患病率呈正相关。应采取措施减轻医学生的压力，以缓解此类症状。
