Su1082 GERDQ is Superior Tool for the Evaluation of GERD Symptoms and Unmet Medical Needs to the Carlsson-Dent Questionnaire - a Large Scale Survey -

Abstract

Background: With an increasing prevalence of gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), primary care physicians are now faced with the challenge of making an accurate diagnosis of GERD and effectively managing it to provide patient satisfaction. Attention has recently focused on a simple and valid tool to support GERD management, called GerdQ, which is a patient-centered tool that has been devised for health care professionals (Aliment. Pharm. Ther. 30:1030, 2009). The present study is designed to validate the efficacy of the Japanese version of GerdQ compared with that of the classical Carlsson-Dent questionnaire (CDQ) onGERDmanagement.Methods:With approval from the ethics committee of Keio University (No.2010-319), web-based questionnaires comprising the Japanese versions of GerdQ and CDQ, including questions for demographic information, including the history of treatment with antisecretory agents and compliance with the prescribed medicines that were scored on a 5-point patients' satisfaction scale, were sent to 1,630 subjects with a history of heartburn and/or regurgitation. Of the 1,630 subjects, 1,024 (men 479; women 545) completed the above questionnaires after providing informed consent. Results: After the exclusion of subjects with peptic ulcer (n = 30) or malignancy (n = 131), 863 subjects (391 men, 43.1 ± 8.5 years; 472 women, 39.4 ± 9.7 years) were ultimately included in the analysis. The CDQ scores were significantly correlated with GerdQ scores (r = 0.34, p < 0.001). Based on the diagnostic criteria of the frequency of reflux symptoms as being more than once a week, subjects were further allocated to GERD (men 173; women 189) and non-GERD (men 218; women 283) groups. Among the GERD group, age-dependent aggravation of scores more strongly correlated with GerdQ than CDQ (trend: p = 0.01 for men; p < 0.001 for women). Among subjects prescribed medicines (n = 67), the score on the patient satisfaction was more significantly correlated with GerdQ score (p = 0.03) than with CDQ score, suggesting the superiority of GerdQ over CDQ for evaluating a patient's satisfaction level with regard to disease management. Among the prescribed population, 34 subjects (49%) used over-the-counter (OTC) drugs to control their GERD symptoms in addition to the prescribed medicine. Although the GerdQ scores of subjects taking the prescribed medicines was significantly higher than those not taking prescriptions (p = 0.03), no trend in CDQ score was noted. Conclusion: GerdQ more reliably reflected the severity of GERD symptoms than CDQ among GERD population. Compared with the CDQ, GerdQ more reflected patient satisfaction levels with the prescribed medicines, suggesting that it might be a potentially useful tool for the evaluation of unmet medical needs for GERD treatment as indicated by the need for OTC medication.