Background
: It was known that the prevalence of reflux esophagitis in Korea was below 5% and there were few epidemiological data on reflux esophagitis in Korea. It was reported that the associated factors of reflux esophagitis were sex, smoking, alcohol consumption, obesity, drugs, exercise, diet habits, but the number of systematic studies on these factors was small. Thus, we studied to estimate the prevalence and associated factors of reflux esophagitis in Korea.

Methods : We examined 5,487 subjects (male 3,450, female 2,037, age;18-82 year) visiting health promotion center for routine check-up including esophagogastroduodenoscopy. All of them were given a questionnaire about past medical history, use of drugs, smoking, alcohol consumption, social history, diet habits. We recruited 275 cases with reflux esophagitis and 550 controls without reflux esophagitis on esophagogastroduodenoscopy. We estimated the prevalence of reflux esophagitis and performed retrospectively a cross-sectional study to evaluate the associated factors of reflux esophagitis.

Results : The prevalence of reflux esophagitis was 5.01%, 7.10% in male, 1.47% in female. The prevalence in male was significantly higher than that in female(p<0.05). The associated factors of reflux esophagitis were smoking, alcohol consumption, serum total cholesterol, triglyceride (p<0.005). It was investigated that the cases with reflux esophagitis in relation to diet habits ate more frequently fried foods in oil, Chinese dishes than controls (p<0.05)

Conclusion : The prevalence of reflux esophagitis in routine check-up subjects was 5.01%. The associated factors of reflux esophagitis were smoking, alcohol consumption, serum total cholesterol, triglyceride.