Community subgroups in dyspepsia and their association with weight loss.

Full Abstract

OBJECTIVE: A link between dyspepsia symptoms and weight loss is controversial. We aimed to determine whether or not weight loss is a marker of dyspepsia. METHODS: Independent community-based cross-sectional studies. Subjects were randomly selected from the general population in Sydney, Australia. All subjects completed validated community health surveys. Two distinct data collections were used; the first as a training sample (N = 888) and the second as a validation sample to confirm the findings of the first (N = 2,907). The study was focused on weight loss, which was categorized as (a) any weight loss, (b) substantive weight loss (> or =3 kg), and (c) weight loss expressed as percentage of body weight. RESULTS: All dyspepsia symptoms studied were positively associated with weight loss although the strength of association did vary. Nausea and vomiting were most strongly associated with weight loss as were meal-related complaints such as postprandial fullness. Similarly, clusters formed based on symptoms were strongly differentiated in terms of weight loss with clusters characterized by nausea, vomiting, and early satiety/postprandial fullness reporting 25-30% weight loss prevalence over the previous 3 months compared with around 10% prevalence in clusters characterized by low dyspepsia symptom burden. Weight loss > or =3 kg followed a similar pattern but with a prevalence approximately half that of any weight loss, while weight loss expressed as percentage of body weight followed the same pattern. CONCLUSIONS: Dyspepsia symptoms are clearly and, in some cases, strongly associated with weight loss, both any loss of weight and substantive weight loss. Weight loss should be considered a warning symptom of dyspepsia.

Author information

Author/s: Jones, Michael P (MP); Talley, Nicholas J (NJ); Eslick, Guy D (GD); Dubois, Dominique (D); Tack, Jan (J);

Affiliation: Psychology Department, Macquarie University, North Ryde, Australia.

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article

Journal: The American journal of gastroenterology (Am J Gastroenterol), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2008-Aug; vol 103 (issue 8) : pp 2051-60

Dates: Created 2008/09/17; Completed 2008/10/21;

PMID: 18796099, status: MEDLINE (last retrieved date: 2/18/2009)

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

External Links for this article
(including full text providers, if available):

Click Electronic Full-text Provider Links to see options for finding the electronic full text links to this article. Note there may be a subscription or fee required for access to the full text. See our FAQ for information on finding FREE full text articles.

This article may also be located in paper journal collections available in many libraries. Use the Journal and Publication Information above to find the full article.