OGBN O03 Quality of life of patients with gastroesophageal reflux disease: findings from a systematic literature review

Abstract

Abstract Background Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), affecting over a billion people worldwide, is associated with significant impairment and productivity loss. Understanding the quality of life among GERD patients may provide important clinical relevance to treatment management and highlight the patient perspective. The aim of this study was to conduct a systematic review of GERD and quality of life, including any potential effects on treatment management. Methods MEDLINE, Embase, and the Cochrane Library were searched for randomized controlled trials, case-control, and cohort studies published in English from 2013 to 2023. Eligible studies included adult GERD patients with quality of life data from a disease-specific or generic instrument. Data analysis contained a narrative synthesis of pre- and post-procedural total scores. Results Eight trials and 34 observational studies were included. The disease-specific instruments GERD Health-Related Quality of Life (GERD-HRQL) (n = 35) and Gastrointestinal Quality of Life Index (GIQLI) (n = 4) had baseline mean scores ranging from 13.3 to 37.1 and 72.0 to 96.3, which changed to 1.3 to 31.6 and 94.8 to 119.8 post-treatment, respectively. Besides the Reflux Symptom Index (RSI) (n = 3), EQ-5D, Psychological General Well-Being (PGWB), SF-36, and GastroEsophageal Reflux Symptom Score (GERSS) were only used by single studies to evaluate the quality of life among GERD patients. In general, these results indicated an improvement post-treatment. Conclusions As a general finding, patients with GERD have poor quality of life and active treatment seems to influence and improve GERD patients’ quality of life, considering the pre-post results of GERD-HRQL and GIQLI scores. As expected, generic quality of life instruments are seldom used.