Natural history of dyspepsia

Abstract

Many individuals in the Western world suffer from heartburn, acid regurgitation, abdominal pain, or bowel habit disturbances. The reported prevalence of dyspepsia is approximately 25% with similar values for gastro-oesophageal reflux disease. While prevalence rates are stable over time, substantial changes occur in the main symptom profiles of sufferers. The economic costs of dyspepsia are considerable.

Figure 1

Percentage of responders in a population based study reporting dyspepsia, dyspepsia subgroups, and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS).¹²The prevalence of "overall" dyspepsia includes reflux symptoms and is given with and without concomitant IBS symptoms.

Figure 2

Development of a symptom profile among 1059 individuals who responded to the same postal questionnaire twice, one year apart (82% of the sample responded to both surveys).¹²⁵⁶