Gastritis and gastroesophageal reflux disease are strongly associated with non-allergic nasal disorders

Abstract

Abstract Background Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) has been reported to be significantly associated with chronic rhinosinusitis, but the strength of the association is still debated. Aims To evaluate the strength of the association between gastritis/GERD and non-allergic rhinitis (NAR)/allergic rhinitis (AR)/sinusitis. Methods We investigated 2887 subjects aged 20–84 years, who underwent a clinical visit in seven Italian centres (Ancona, Palermo, Pavia, Terni, Sassari, Torino, Verona) within the study on Gene Environment Interactions in Respiratory Diseases, a population-based multicase-control study between 2008 and 2014. Subjects were asked if they had doctor-diagnosed “gastritis or stomach ulcer (confirmed by gastroscopy)” or “gastroesophageal reflux disease, hiatal hernia or esophagitis”. The association between NAR/AR/sinusitis and either gastritis or GERD was evaluated through relative risk ratios (RRR) by multinomial logistic regression. Results The prevalence of gastritis/GERD increased from subjects without nasal disturbances (22.8% = 323/1414) to subjects with AR (25.8% = 152/590) and further to subjects with NAR (36.7% = 69/188) or sinusitis (39.9% = 276/691). When adjusting for centre, sex, age, education level, BMI, smoking habits and alcohol intake, the combination of gastritis and GERD was associated with a four-fold increase in the risk of NAR (RRR = 3.80, 95% CI 2.56–5.62) and sinusitis (RRR = 3.70, 2.62–5.23) with respect to controls, and with a much smaller increase in the risk of AR (RRR = 1.79, 1.37–2.35).. Conclusion The study confirmed the association between gastritis/GERD and nasal disturbances, which is stronger for NAR and sinusitis than for AR.

Keywords

• Gastritits
• Gastroesophageal reflux disease
• Allergic rhinitis
• Non-allergic rhinitis
• Sinusitis