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Functional dyspepsia more common following acute gastroenteritis
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Patients who experienced acute infectious gastroenteritis were more likely to develop functional dyspepsia later, according to recent results.
Researchers performed a systematic review and meta-analysis of three case-control and six cohort studies assessing the risk for developing functional dyspepsia (FD) after incidence of acute infectious gastroenteritis (IGE). Studies were collected from PubMed and EMBASE and included 5,755 patients. Study quality was measured via the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale (NOS), with seven included studies scoring 6 or higher.
Included studies indicated increased risk for FD after exposure to IGE, with 9.7% of exposed patients developing FD compared with 3.6% of nonexposed participants. Investigators calculated a pooled OR of 2.18 (95% CI, 1.7-2.81) for the risk for FD after IGE.
The observed risk increase was greater in studies of patients with self-reported IGE (OR=2.83; 95% CI, 2.1-3.81) compared with studies including documented episodes of IGE (OR=1.81; 95% CI, 1.26-2.58). The risk decreased based on follow-ups after IGE incidence (OR=4.76; 95% CI, 2.47-9.2, studies with 12 months or fewer of follow-up; OR=1.97; 95% CI ,1.51-2.56, studies with more than 12 months of follow-up). Among six studies that evaluated men’s and women’s data separately, women had a slightly greater risk (OR=2.11; 95% CI, 1.55-2.86 vs. OR=1.94; 95% CI, 1.43-2.65).
Significant heterogeneity was observed among the studies (P=.033); publication bias was not (P>.166).
Brian L. Pike
“The estimated risk calculated from this meta-analysis adds to the growing body of evidence that the adverse health effects of gastroenteritis go well beyond the acute symptoms that present at the time of infection,” researcher Lt. Brian L. Pike, PhD, MPH, Medical Services Corps and US Navy Staff Sciences, enteric diseases department, of the Naval Medical Research Center, told Healio.com. “Our results suggest that infectious gastroenteritis gives rise to approximately 6 million cases of functional dyspepsia annually in the United States alone. Given the substantial health burden that this represents, there is a significant need for more research into the post-infectious sequelae of enteric infection.”
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