Objective: To investigate the longitudinal changes in quality of life (QoL) for gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) treated with 52-week rabeprazole over a period of 2-3 years.
Methods: A multi-center, open-label and randomized 52-week rabeprazole trial was conducted in 67 eosinophilic esophagitis (EE) and 31 non-erosive reflux disease (NERD) patients. The follow-up period is 2-3 years after the treatment. Their QoL were evaluated using SF-36 Health Survey Questionnaire and GERD-HRQL scale. The results were compared with those acquired before and after a 52-week proton pump inhibitor (PPI) treatment.
Results: (1) Both EE and NERD patients improved significantly according to GERD-HRQL scale in scores of reflux symptoms as well as overall satisfaction (12.5 vs 3.5, 20.0 vs 14.0, both P < 0.01) versus the pre-therapy baseline. (2) Both EE and NERD patients had no significant difference in the scale of GERD-HRQL (2.0 vs 3.5, 5.0 vs 4.0, both P > 0.05) and most major domains of SF-36 questionnaire versus the post-therapy baseline (53 +/- 17 vs 61 +/- 17, t = -2.143, P = 0.035). (3) The NERD patients had a higher score of reflux symptoms than the EE patients according to the GERD-HRQL Scale (14.0 vs 3.5, Z = 2.377, P = 0.017), however there were no significant differences between NERD and EE in 8 major domains of SF-36 questionnaire (P > 0.05).
Conclusion: Long-term and low-dose PPI treatment achieves improvement both in reflux symptoms and QoL in GERD patients and such effects last a long time. At follow-ups, the reflux symptoms of NERD patients are more severe than EE patients. However, the overall QoL has shown little differences between these two subtypes.