Khubzan Waleed D, Kaddah Dana O, Alkhoshiban Ola E, Alkhater Mirza H, Alshahrani Botool A, Alhatlani Rama A, Alsulaimani Muntaha S, Elyas Dalal A, Almourgi Majed A
From the Department? of Surgery (Khubzan), Faculty of Medicine, and from the Department of Surgery (Almourgi), College of Medicine, Taif University, Taif; from the Department of Medicine (Kaddah) Faculty of Medicine; from the Department of Human Sciences-Nutrition (Elyas); and from the Department of Medicine (Alshahrani, Alsulaimani), Faculty of Medicine, and from the Department of Human Sciences-Nutrition, (Elyas), King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah; from the Department of Medicine (Alkhoshiban, Alhatlani), Faculty of Medicine, Unaizah College of Medicine and Medical Science, Qassim; From the Internal Medicine and Staff Clinic Department (Alkhater), Eradah Complex and Mental Health, Estern Health Cluster, Dammam, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Med J. 2025 Aug;46(8):849-864. doi: 10.15537/smj.2025.46.8.20250231.
To find how common gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) is in Saudi Arabia and to identify the main risk factors linked to it.
We followed PRISMA guidelines and registered the study on PROSPERO (CRD42025637142). A full literature search was done across PubMed, MEDLINE, and Google Scholar up to December 2024. Two reviewers independently reviewed the results. We assessed the risk of bias using the JBI critical appraisal tool and evaluated potential reporting bias through Egger's test. To determine the overall prevalence and key contributing risk factors, we conducted a meta-analysis utilizing a random-effects approach. We also did subgroup analyses based on gender and other variables. STATA version 17 was used for all analyses.
In total, we included 22 cross-sectional studies with 18,487 participants altogether. The combined prevalence of GERD in both genders was 33%. Males had a prevalence of 34%, and females were close at 33%. Common risk factors were observed such as smoking (44%), eating fast food (43%), spicy food (34%), NSAID use (31%), and drinking tea or coffee (32%). The substantial heterogeneity observed (I² >95%) could potentially be attributed to variations in methodological approaches or differences in the characteristics of the sampled populations. Therefore, a random-effect model was used for all analyses.
Gastroesophageal reflux disease appears to have a higher prevalence in Saudi Arabia relative to global figures. The findings underscore several prominent risk factors frequently observed within the region, indicating the importance of enhancing public awareness and implementing focused lifestyle interventions to help reduce and control the impact of GERD..
了解胃食管反流病（GERD）在沙特阿拉伯的普遍程度，并确定与之相关的主要风险因素。
我们遵循PRISMA指南，并在PROSPERO（CRD42025637142）上注册了该研究。截至2024年12月，在PubMed、MEDLINE和谷歌学术上进行了全面的文献检索。两名评审员独立审查结果。我们使用JBI批判性评价工具评估偏倚风险，并通过Egger检验评估潜在的报告偏倚。为了确定总体患病率和关键的促成风险因素，我们采用随机效应方法进行了荟萃分析。我们还根据性别和其他变量进行了亚组分析。所有分析均使用STATA 17版。
我们总共纳入了22项横断面研究，共有18487名参与者。两性GERD的合并患病率为33%。男性患病率为34%，女性接近33%。观察到的常见风险因素包括吸烟（44%）、吃快餐（43%）、吃辛辣食物（34%）、使用非甾体抗炎药（31%）以及喝茶或咖啡（32%）。观察到的显著异质性（I²>95%）可能归因于方法学方法的差异或抽样人群特征的不同。因此，所有分析均使用随机效应模型。
相对于全球数据，胃食管反流病在沙特阿拉伯的患病率似乎更高。研究结果强调了该地区经常观察到的几个突出风险因素，表明提高公众意识和实施有针对性的生活方式干预措施以帮助减少和控制GERD影响的重要性。
