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Review article: impact of night‐time reflux on lifestyle − unrecognized issues in reflux disease
Author(s) -
Shaker R.,
Brunton S.,
Elfant A.,
Golopol L.,
Ruoff G.,
Stanghellini V.
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
alimentary pharmacology and therapeutics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.308
H-Index - 177
eISSN - 1365-2036
pISSN - 0269-2813
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2036.2004.02237.x
Subject(s) - reflux , medicine , disease
Summary Gastro‐oesophageal reflux disease (GERD), manifesting with symptoms including heartburn and regurgitation, affects people during both daytime and nocturnal hours. Night‐time GERD has been reported to have a greater impact on a patient's life than daytime GERD due to prolonged oesophageal acid exposure time per reflux episode. To further understand this issue, it is important to implement quality of life (QOL) measures. QOL studies are becoming increasingly important to physicians in making clinical decisions, and generic and disease‐specific health‐related QOL (HRQL) tools have been developed to measure a wide variety of topics. There are currently no universally accepted guidelines on how to best measure HRQL in GERD patients. It is important to note that these surveys may not yield accurate results because many GERD sufferers may feel that their symptoms are not serious enough to seek treatment. Some surveys include the GERD‐HRQL assessment, the Short Form Health Survey (SF‐36), and the Gallup survey. When compared with daytime GERD patients, night‐time GERD patients may suffer from sleep deprivation, which in turn leads to physical and emotional problems and a poor overall QOL. Studies indicate that the prevalence and impact of night‐time heartburn have been underestimated and that adequate treatment of symptoms is often not achieved. In addition, GERD greatly affects work productivity and leads to a significant economic burden on society. Although limited studies are available on the impact of pharmacological treatment on GERD QOL, recent findings indicate that proton pump inhibitors are more effective than H 2 ‐receptor antagonists for the improvement of overall QOL.