Epidemiological study on the incidence of gastroesophageal reflux disease symptoms in patients in acute treatment with NSAIDs

Abstract

Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) is one of the most common disorders in medical practice. The prevalence of GERD in Spain has been reported to be 15%. GERD is associated with esophageal and extra-esophageal complications and with a negative impact on the patients’ related quality of life. Several risk factors have been related with the development of GERD, including smoking, coffee intake, alcohol consumption and use of medication, such as NSAIDs. If untreated, GERD symptoms can lead to a decrease of patients’ related quality of life and to treatment discontinuation. From this study, it was confirmed that the relationship between GERD and some behavioral risk factors, such as alcohol intake, smoking and coffee consumption, and concomitant treatment with NSAID drugs. Among the protective factors for GERD, antisecretory agents and antacids have shown to be essential for the control of GERD, the use of proton pump inhibitors being the predominant protective factor.

Keywords::

• antisecretory agents and antacids
• gastroesophageal reflux disease
• NSAID
• patients’ related quality of life
• proton pump inhibitor

Financial & competing interests disclosure

This article is sponsored by Janssen-Cilag. Pedro Martinez is an employee of Janssen-Cilag, Madrid, Spain. The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.

The authors would like to thank E Zubillaga, I Bernardo and M Caballero for helping to edit this manuscript and Content Ed Net, Madrid, Spain, for editorial assistance.