Dyspepsia prevalence in general population aged over 20 in the west part of Iran

Objective: To estimate the prevalence of dyspepsia in the general population aged over 20 in western Iran. Methods: The cross-sectional study was conducted among the randomly selected general population over the age of 20 years in Sanandaj city. Iran, from April to December 2009. A questionnaire containing demographic, symptoms and history variables was used. Dependent variables were self-reported gastrointestinal symptoms. The prevalence of dyspepsia in different groups was analysed using chi square test, while logistic regression analysis was done to determine dyspepsia, ulcer-like, dysmotility-like and reflux-like prevalence after controlling the confounders.Results: Among 590 respondents, the prevalence of dyspepsia was 54.6% (n=322). Among them were 243 (41.2%) cases of uninvestigated dyspepsia. According to dyspepsia classification, the prevalence of ulcer-like, dysmotility-like, reflux-like and non-specific dyspepsia were 31.5% (n=186), 11% (n=65), 27.3% (n=161) and 12.4% (n=74), respectively. Difference in dyspepsia prevalence between men and women persisted after adjustment for other factors (p=0.01) and dyspepsia prevalence was higher in over-60-years old group than the middle aged group (p=0.008). Conclusion: The study showed high prevalence of dyspepsia in the general population. Gender, age, familyhistory and theophylline consumption affect the prevalence of dyspepsia.