Evaluation of GERD Symptoms during Therapy

Abstract

Background/Aims:Evaluation of the response of gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) symptoms to treatment would be facilitated by a brief, valid, reliable and responsive, self-assessed GERD-sensitive scale. We therefore developed the Reflux Questionnaire (ReQuest™). This publication describes the psychometric evaluation and validation of ReQuest™. Methods:This second phase of development was based on data from a clinical trial of patients with erosive GERD who received pantoprazole 20 or 40 mg daily for 28 days and completed weekly the long, and daily the short version of ReQuest™. The psychometric analyses of ReQuest™ included internal consistency, test-retest reliability and responsiveness. Construct validity was evaluated by comparison with the Gastrointestinal Symptom Rating Scale (GSRS) and the Psychological General Well-Being (PGWB) scale. Results:Validation of ReQuest™ indicated very high internal consistency (Cronbach’s α = 0.90) and test-retest reliability (intraclass correlation coefficient 0.94 (long-long) and 0.86 (short-short)). This was also the case for the two subscales ReQuest™-GI and ReQuest™-WSO with Cronbach’s α coefficients of 0.84 and 0.81. Responsiveness was high with a responsiveness index of >0.8 at day 28. Construct validity was good. Conclusion:ReQuest™ is a highly reliable, valid and responsive self-assessment tool for evaluating treatment response in patients with erosive GERD, and can be applied daily.