Risk of incident gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) in patients with sleep disorders: a population-based cohort study

Sleep disorders pose a serious threat to human, which may cause variety diseases. Recent reviews on the epidemiology examine that gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) has different levels of causality about asthma, chronic dry cough, sleep apnea, non-cardiac chest pain, chest tightness, and chronic bronchitis. The relationship between sleep disorders and GERD has been explained in various ways, but only limited reports on the complication rates in Taiwan. The objective of this follow-up study is to evaluate the risk of incident GERD in Taiwanese people with sleep disorders from January 1, 2000 to December 31, 2012. We used the Taiwan’s National Health Insurance Research Database to conduct a nationwide population-based cohort study to assess the risk of incident GERD in people with sleep disorders. A total of 66,133 sleep disorders patients and 264,532 non-sleep disorders controls were included. Sleep disorders was a risk factor of incident GERD (adjusted hazard ratio being 1.722, 95% CI 1.69–1.76, p < 0.001) after controlling potential confounders including age, sex, comorbidities, and hiatal hernia. In conclusion, sleep disorders might be a risk factor for development of GERD based on the 12-year follow-up.