Exploration of esophageal hypervigilance and anxiety status in patients with symptomatic gastroesophageal reflux disease: A single-center study in Taiwan

The esophageal hypervigilance and anxiety scale (EHAS) is a valuable cognitive-affective evaluation of visceral sensitivity, which has been demonstrated to associate with gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) symptom severity and psychological stress. We aimed to obtain the values for EHAS in the setting of patients who underwent esophagogastroduodenoscopy (EGD) without GERD symptoms and investigate potential clinical factors contributing level of EHAS in symptomatic patients. Patients scheduled EGD with or without GERD symptoms were prospectively enrolled for assessing patient-reported outcomes, including EHAS and GERD questionnaire (GERDQ). Patients without GERD symptoms had GERDQ ≤8 were classified as controls. Potential factors influencing the level of EHAS were identified via generalized linear model. We enrolled 534 patients, aged 20 to 84 years (mean, 52.78), of whom 54.2% were female; 110 had GERD symptoms, and 418 were controls. Patients with GERD symptoms had higher EHAS levels than controls (28.7 vs 10.2, P < .001). On generalized linear model GERDQ scores and female gender positively correlated with EHAS (GERDQ, β = 2.254, P < .001; female, β = 3.828, P = .001). In summary, our study suggests that greater esophageal hypervigilance and anxiety are associated with reflux symptoms burden across the spectrum of GERD, and correlate with female gender too.