Reflux esophagitis might be a risk factor for Barrett's esophagus which indicates high risk of esophageal adenocarcinoma in Europe and North America, and it is becoming more prevalent in recent years. While reflux esophagitis is more prevalent in males than in females, gender risk factors for the disease are unclear.
We studied eight backgrounds of 1,062 examinees of esophagogastroduodenoscopy in general medical checkup to analyze risk factors for reflux esophagitis in men and women. We also examined the degree of atrophic gastritis by gender.
Multivariate logistic regression analyses revealed that hiatus hernia, gastric mucosa without atrophy and obesity were significant positive risk factors in males while hiatus hernia and obesity were significant risk factors in females. From the results of the examination about gastric mucosal atrophy by gender, the possible reason for gastric mucosa without atrophy being a risk factor only in males is the low rate of severe mucosal atrophy above O-1 with clearly decreased gastric acid secretion in females.
