[Food intake before going to bed and nighttime gastro-esophageal reflux]

An unhealthy food consumption habit attributes to one of the etiology of gastro-esophageal reflux. The purpose of this article was to study the influence of food intake before going to bed on the nighttime gastro-esophageal reflux.

Thirty-eight children with upper gastrointestinal symptoms were divided into two groups on the basis of taking (Group A, n=16) or not taking (Group B, n=22) food (non-stimulating) within 2 hrs before going to bed. All of them underwent 24 hr esophageal pH monitoring. The times of reflux episode, the longest duration of reflux, the times of reflux duration > 5 min, and the percentage of time of pH < 4 were compared between the two groups.

There were no significant differences in the parameters of pH monitoring between Groups A and B, with the times of reflux episode of 32 (21.5-43.5) vs 24 (15-37.3) , the longest duration of reflux of 6.6 (2.4-29.8) min vs 4.5 (2.5-13.2) min, the times of reflux episode longer than 5 min of 1.5 (0-3) vs 0 (0-3), and the percentage of time of pH < 4 of 4.3 (2.1-15.0)% vs 4.1 (2.0-7.2)% .

Non-stimulating food intake before going to bed did not adversely affect the nighttime gastro-esophageal reflux.