Abstract

INTRODUCTION

It was aimed to investigate the relationship between eating habits and reflux by investigating eating habits in adolescent patients with gastroesophageal reflux disease, and also to investigate the relationship between gastroesophageal reflux disease and anxiety.

METHODS

The study included patients with gastroesophageal reflux disease in the pediatric gastroenterology outpatient clinic between the ages of 12 and 18 who had not yet been treated. The control group consists of age matched adolescents who applied for upper respiratory tract infection. The relationship between eating habits and reflux was assessed with Adolescent Nutrition Checklist; a relationship between gastroesophageal reflux disease and anxiety assessed with Anxiety Disorder Screening Questionnaire.

RESULTS

Seventy adolescents with reflux disease and 67 adolescents as the control group were included in the study. There was no significant difference between the groups regarding the eating habits and anxiety scores. However, it was seen that most of the patients have poor eating habits and the general anxiety score was high in both groups.

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION

No relation was found between the gastroesophageal reflux disease and anxiety and eating habits in adolescents. These results suggested that reflux disease should be separated from other gastrointestinal complaints such as abdominal pain which may be psychosomatic. However, regarding the poor eating habits there was a quantitative incrementin those with gastroesophageal reflux disease. For this reason there is a need for further studies which explores the eating habits with a larger sample size in this population.