Study of the Prevalence of Dyspepsia in the Adult Population in a Rural Community of Bangladesh

Dyspepsia is a symptom complex that includes epigastric pain, post-prandial fullness, bloating, early satiety, belching, nausea, vomiting, heartburn, acid regurgitations and anorexia. The most widely applied definition of dyspepsia is the Rome working team formulation namely chronic or recurrent pain or discomfort centered in the upper abdomen. Till date the prevalence of dyspepsia in Bangladesh has not been studied much. The last study was done in 1987 in a rural community and the prevalence of dyspepsia was found to be 41.4%. However, associated risk factors were not assessed and definition of dyspepsia was much narrower as well as the dysmotility type dyspepsia was not included in that study. Hence it is now high time to carry out another study to see the prevalence of dyspepsia in Bangladesh and the risk factors associated with it. To determine the prevalence of dyspepsia and the demographic risk factors associated with dyspepsia in the adult population in the rural community of Bangladesh. This cross sectional population based study carried out in Ghior Union of Manikgonj district of Bangladesh from January 2007 to April 2008. All persons 18 years or above living in Ghior Union were considered as the study populations with using a pre-designed questionnaire. This study showed that the prevalence of dyspepsia to be 61.9%. Reflux- like dyspepsia was the commonest sub-type of dyspepsia without reflux symptoms comprising 43.9% of the total population and 70.9% of the dyspeptics. Dysmotility like dyspepsia comprised more than half of the dyspeptics. Nausea (40.7%) was the most predominant dysmotility like dyspeptic symptoms followed by early satiety (38.4%); 13.9% of the population had history of recurrent upper abdominal pain and 11.9% of the population had gastro-esophageal reflux disease (GERD). There was considerable overlapping (16.7%) of IBS with dyspepsia. Female sex, younger age (<40 years), low family income (<5000 Taka per month), lower educational level (up to primary level), smoking and use of NSAIDs were significantly associated with dyspepsia. The prevalence of dyspepsia in adult population of Bangladesh is 61.9% which is very high compared to other countries and also much higher than the prevalence found in our country thirty years back. A great change in the socio-economic status and lifestyle of the people along with environmental pollution and food adulteration may be responsible for this increase in prevalence. This study was conducted in only one union of this country, so it was not representative of the whole population of the country. Therefore further study with large population size including rural and urban peoples from different parts of Bangladesh is needed to estimate the accurate prevalence of dyspepsia in our country.