Epidemiology and natural history of gastro-esophageal reflux disease (GERD)

Prevalence and demographic determinants of gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) in the Turkish general population: A population-based cross-sectional study

“…Understanding the natural history and determinants of GERD has an important impact on the current management of GERD patients (18). According to our findings, being more common among female patients, a past history of gastric symptoms was reported in half of the individuals, while identification of these symptoms yielded a past history of GERD in 19.1% of the Turkish general population.…”

“…This may be related to higher rates of physician visits among females leading to a diagnosis of gastric disorder. Indeed, GERD was reported to be more prevalent among women (18), and physician visits were reported in the literature to be more frequent among patients who have suffered GERD for a long time or patients with persistent symptoms than among patients with "inconveniencing GERD" (22).…”