Quality of life of agricultural workers with gastroesophageal refl ux disease

According to the frequency and prevalence of gastroesophageal refl ux disease (GERD) ranks fi rst in a number of gastroenterological diseases. GERD can lead to serious complications and a signifi cant reduction in the quality of life (QL). Agricultural workers (AW) are at risk for the development of GERD, as their typical working and living conditions are provoking and/or aggravating risk factors for the development of this disease.

The aim of the study is to study the impact of GERD on the quality of life of agricultural workers.

The study included 98 patients with GERD and 140 conditionally healthy individuals. To assess the quality of life, a nonspecifi c SF–36 questionnaire was used.

As a result of a one-time study found that workers AW statistically signifi cantly lower indicators of «General health» (GH), «pain index» (PI), «life activity» (LA) and «mental health» (MH) compared with the data of representatives of working professions who live in the city.

With increasing age, there is a decrease in QL, especially GH and PI, while the indicator of «social functioning» (SF) reaches the maximum values in the age group from 51 to 60 years.

Comparison of QL indices in the groups of patients with GERD and conditionally healthy AW workers allowed to establish a statistically signifi cant diff erence in all parameters characterizing mental health, as well as in the indicators of GH and «physical functioning» (PF). It is characteristic that the indicators of the Russian Federation and the PI had no statistically signifi cant diff erence between the groups of observations. Statistically signifi cant strong correlation was revealed between the age of AW workers, patients with GERD, and indicators of PI and LA, statistically signifi cant moderate correlation — between the age and indicators of GH, PF, «role functioning» (RF) and «emotional state» (ES).

For healthy workers of AW is characterized by a signifi cant decrease in QL compared with workers living in  the city, while in patients with GERD decrease in QL is accompanied mainly by a violation of the mental subsphere. When studying the quality of life of patients should take into account the infl uence of not only the studied disease, but also medical and social factors. 

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