Body mass index, chronic atrophic gastritis and heartburn: a population-based study among 8936 older adults from Germany

Lei Gao (1) , Melanie Nicole Weck (2) , Dietrich Rothenbacher (2) , Hermann Brenner (2)

1 Clinical Epidemiology and Aging Reasearch
2 Clinical Epidemiology and Aging Research

Background: Obesity and overweight have been positively related to gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD). It has been suggested, that this relation is due to an increased gastric acid reflux which is caused by an enhanced intra-abdominal pressure. Aim: We aimed to assess potential interaction of the association between body mass index (BMI) and GERD by chronic atrophic gastritis (CAG) which goes along with reduced acid production. Methods: In the baseline examination of ESTHER, a study conducted in 9953 older adults in Saarland, information on frequency of heartburn, potential risk factors and medical history were obtained by self-administered standardized questionnaire. Serological measurements of pepsinogen I and II were taken for definition of CAG. Results: In total, 2,565 (28.7%) of the included subjects experienced heartburn within the past 4 weeks. A pronounced dose-response relation was observed between BMI and heartburn occurrence (p<0.001) among people without CAG, but not among people with CAG (p-value for interaction=0.018). Obese/overweight people with CAG had a much lower risk of heartburn compared to obese/overweight people without CAG (OR=0.31, 95% CI=0.24-0.40). Conclusions: Our results are consistent with the hypothesis that BMI is positively related to GERD symptoms by its impact on acid reflux.

Mots clés: Medicine

Lei Gao, Melanie Nicole Weck, Dietrich Rothenbacher, Hermann Brenner. Body mass index, chronic atrophic gastritis and heartburn: a population-based study among 8936 older adults from Germany. Alimentary Pharmacology and Therapeutics, 2010, 32 (2), pp.296. ⟨10.1111/j.1365-2036.2010.04334.x⟩. ⟨hal-00552564⟩