Heartburn and Acid Reflux Disease Severity
To investigate further, acid reflux researchers examined the relationship of age, severe heartburn symptoms, and severe erosive esophagitis by pooling data from five controlled trials that looked at treatments for gastroesophageal reflux disease. The studies included a total of 11,945 patients.
As they report in the medical journal Gastroenterology, the investigators observed a progressive increase in rates of severe erosive esophageal disease with each decade of age. In patients younger than 21 years, only 12 percent had severe esophagitis at the time they entered the trial, compared with 37 percent of those older than 70 years.
Among those with severe disease, severe heartburn was present in more than 50 percent of patients younger than 50 years but was less common in older patients and was least likely to be found in those older than 70 years.
Given these findings, the investigators call for more aggressive diagnosis and treatment of elderly patients, regardless of the reported severity of their symptoms.
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