Elements Affecting Quality of Life in Individuals With Gastroesophagel Reflux Disease

To ascertain the paths of mental and physical life quality and the elements affecting them in individuals with gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) receiving fundoplication.

A forward-looking cohort analysis involved 207 GERD patients, monitored before 1, 2, and 3 months following their fundoplication. The quality-of-life trajectory categories were aligned using latent class analysis. Analyses involving both single and multiple factors were conducted to identify elements that affect the quality-of-life trajectory classifications. For groups without heterogeneity, a latent growth model was used to analyze and further determine the factors affecting the intercept and slope of the trajectory.

Two categories of psychological quality-of-life trajectories were distinguished: the group experiencing continuous decline and the group with continuous increase. The predictive factors for the constant decline group were low levels of family support and smoking. No population heterogeneity was observed in terms of the physical quality of life, and the predictive factors for the mean trajectory intercept were sex, marital status, disease type, support outside the patient's family, sleep quality, and depression. Disease type was the only predictive factor for the trajectory slope.

The research pinpointed 2 categories of psychological quality-of-life trajectories: those of continuous decline and those of constant increase, revealing that insufficient family support and smoking habits predict adverse trajectory categories. Early preoperative identification of these predictive factors can help identify patients at risk of adverse trajectory categories, thereby guiding their early postoperative recovery.