Observational Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2017. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Jan 21, 2017; 23(3): 525-532
Published online Jan 21, 2017. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v23.i3.525
Prevalence of gastroesophageal reflux disease in a country with a high occurrence of Helicobacter pylori
Serhat Bor, Gul Kitapcioglu, Elmas Kasap
Serhat Bor, Section of Gastroenterology, Ege Reflux Group, Ege University, Izmir 35040, Turkey
Gul Kitapcioglu, Department of Biostatistics, Ege Reflux Group, Ege University, Izmir 35040, Turkey
Elmas Kasap, Section of Gastroenterology, Celal Bayar University, Manisa 45030, Turkey
Author contributions: Bor S, Kitapcioglu G and Kasap E conceptioned and designed of the study; Generation, collection, assembly, interpretation of data, Drafting or revision of the manuscript, approval of the final version of the manuscript; Kitapcioglu G analysis and/or interpretation of data, approval of the final version of the manuscript; Kasap E Generation, collection, assembly, interpretation of data, approval of the final version of the manuscript.
Supported by This study partially support from Sanovel, Turkey.
Informed consent statement: All study participants, or their legal guardian, provided informed written consent prior to study enrollment.
Conflict-of-interest statement: There are no conflicts of interest to report.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Serhat Bor, MD, Section of Gastroenterology, Ege Reflux Group, Ege University, Ege Universitesi Tip Fakultesi, Gastroenteroloji, Bornova, Izmir 35040, Turkey. serhatbor@yahoo.com
Telephone: +90-532-3957677 Fax: +90-232-3731547
Received: August 13, 2016
Peer-review started: August 14, 2016
First decision: September 5, 2016
Revised: October 4, 2016
Accepted: December 2, 2016
Article in press: December 2, 2016
Published online: January 21, 2017
Processing time: 154 Days and 9.8 Hours
Core Tip

Core tip: Using a validated gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) questionnaire and the urea breath test for Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori), we found a relatively high prevalence of GERD and more frequent regurgitation than heartburn. We also determined that the prevalence of GERD increases with increased body mass index and with female gender and decreases with increased education and income, whereas there was no relationship with age, alcohol use, or smoking. Additionally, we found that H. pylori did not affect the prevalence or symptom profile of GERD and that Turkish individual with classical symptoms were more prone to additional symptoms. This unique disease profile may be attributable to Turkey's combination of Western and Eastern lifestyles.