Observational Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2019. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Cases. Jun 26, 2019; 7(12): 1421-1429
Published online Jun 26, 2019. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v7.i12.1421
Impact of gastroesophageal reflux disease on the quality of life of Polish patients
Rafał Gorczyca, Piotr Pardak, Anna Pękala, Rafał Filip
Rafał Gorczyca, Department of Clinical Endoscopy, Institute of Rural Health, Lublin 20-080, Poland
Piotr Pardak, Anna Pękala, Rafał Filip, Department of Gastroenterology with IBD Unit of Clinical Hospital 2, University of Rzeszów, Rzeszów 35-301, Poland
Author contributions: Gorczyca R and Filip R designed the study, performed the data collection and statistical analyses; Filip R, Pardak P and Pękala A performed data interpretation and drafted the manuscript; All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Institutional review board statement: The study protocol was approved by the Institutional Ethic Committee at the Institute of Rural Health in Lublin, Poland.
Informed consent statement: All patients gave their written informed consent prior to study inclusion.
Conflict-of-interest statement: There are no conflicts of interest to report for any of the authors.
STROBE statement: The authors have read the STROBE Statement-checklist of items, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the STROBE Statement-checklist of items.
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/
Corresponding author: Piotr Pardak, MD, Doctor, Department of Gastroenterology with IBD Unit of Clinical Hospital 2, University of Rzeszów, Lwowska 60, Rzeszów 35-301, Poland. piotrpardak@wp.pl
Telephone: +48-17-8664607 Fax: +48-17-8664702
Received: January 3, 2019
Peer-review started: January 3, 2019
First decision: January 30, 2019
Revised: April 22, 2019
Accepted: May 2, 2019
Article in press: May 2, 2019
Published online: June 26, 2019
Processing time: 173 Days and 10.8 Hours
Core Tip

Core tip: Gastro-esophageal reflux disease is a serious health problem leading to a decrease in the quality of life. This study determines the effect of reflux symptoms, stress and body mass index (commonly known as BMI) on the quality of life measured by a 36-item Short Form Health Survey. We demonstrate that in patients with gastro-esophageal reflux, stress decreases the quality of life to a higher degree than the frequency of reflux symptoms. Age and increasing BMI result in decreased physical function. Therefore, the patient’s stress level should be considered in the diagnosis and therapy, as well as an assessment of the progress of treatment.