Dysphagia in adult Japanese is not equivalent to the grade of endoscopic reflux esophagitis.

OBJECTIVE This study was aimed to evaluate the correlation between dysphagia, detected by nursing staff in a brief interview and endoscopic findings in reflux esophagitis. PATIENTS AND METHODS A total of 8,031 Japanese subjects without medication for gastrointestinal disease were briefly asked about the presence of heartburn, dysphagia, odynophagia, and acid regurgitation by nursing staff before endoscopy for assessment of esophagitis utilizing the Los Angeles Classification. RESULTS The grade of endoscopic esophagitis was not equivalent to symptoms of dysphagia in 8,031 subjects. We evaluated the characteristics of subjects who complained of only dysphagia. Univariate analysis indicated that non-smoking, and non-drinking females were associated with a higher risk for dysphagia, and multivariate analysis indicated the gender was associated with dysphagia. There was no association of dysphagia with herniation and distribution of age. CONCLUSION This study indicated that dysphagia was not equivalent to the endoscopic findings according to a brief interview by nursing staff and that dysphagia might be more common in females and those who do not smoke or drink.