Heartburn Treatment Success in Patients with Non-Erosive Reflux Disease
Author Information
Author(s): Junghard Ola, Halling Katarina
Primary Institution: AstraZeneca R&D
Hypothesis
The study aims to investigate the responsiveness of various treatment success variables in patients with symptoms of heartburn.
Conclusion
In patients with NERD, responsiveness varied among different treatment success definitions, with more demanding definitions giving better responsiveness.
Supporting Evidence
- More stringent treatment success criteria translated into more responsive treatment success variables.
- 61.3% of patients had no heartburn at 4 weeks according to investigator assessment.
- The treatment success variable 'no heartburn' showed a 74.5 percentage point difference in success rates between patients who were 'unchanged' and those who were 'a very great deal better'.
- Treatment success variables based on change from baseline to 4 weeks were generally less responsive than those based on the week 4 assessments only.
Takeaway
This study looked at how well different ways of measuring heartburn treatment success worked, finding that stricter measures were better at showing improvement.
Methodology
Patients with non-erosive reflux disease were treated with proton pump inhibitors for 4 weeks, and treatment success was assessed using various questionnaires.
Potential Biases
Potential bias due to the study being conducted by employees of AstraZeneca.
Limitations
The study may not generalize to all patients with gastro-esophageal reflux disease as it focused on those with non-erosive reflux disease.
Participant Demographics
{"male_female_ratio":"47:53","age_distribution":{"<50":54,"50 to <65":34,"≥ 65":12},"history_of_heartburn":{"<12 months":11,"1–5 years":35,">5 years":53},"overall_heartburn_severity":{"mild":21,"moderate":62,"severe":18}}
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
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