Anxiety disorder and eating habits in adolescents with gastroesophageal reflux disease

WOS: 000454206700010Objective: It was aimed to evaluate the relationship between eating habits and reflux by investigating eating habits in adolescent patients with gastroesophageal reflux disease, and also to assess the interplay between gastroesophageal reflux disease and anxiety. Methods: We included patients between the ages of 12 and 18 diagnosed as gastroesophageal reflux disease in the pediatric gastroenterology outpatient clinic but who had not yet been treated. The control group consisted of age matched adolescents who applied for upper respiratory tract infection. The relationship between eating habits and reflux was assessed with Adolescent Nutrition Checklist, and relationship between gastroesophageal reflux disease and anxiety was 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 in both groups. had poor eating habits and higher general anxiety score. Conclusion: No relation was found between the gastroesophageal reflux disease, 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, there was a quantitative increment in poor eating habits in those with gastroesophageal reflux disease. For this reason there is a need for further studies which investigate the eating habits with a larger sample size of this population