Quality of life in patients with chronic pancreatitis combined with gastroesophageal reflux disease and obesity

One of the most common diseases of the digestive system is the pathology of the pancreas. The number of newly diagnosed cases of chronic pancreatitis (CP) in people of working age is increasing; compared to the 1990s, a younger patient cohort is experiencing the disease’s development. It is often resistant to therapy and has a recurrent course. Moreover, CP rarely manifests alone and typically coexists with other organ diseases, particularly those of the digestive system, such as gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD). It has been proven that obesity raises the risk of developing CP, and with CP that develops against the background of obesity, the disease has an unfavorable course, is less responsive to therapy, has a higher incidence of complications, and increases the risk of pancreatic cancer. In addition to increasing the risk of esophageal cancer and Barrett’s esophagus, obesity also raises the chance of GERD. The authors present the survey results of 108 patients with acute CP, GERD, and obesity in the article. The control group included 30 almost healthy individuals who were the same age and sex as the examined patients. Analyzing the SF-36 questionnaire data revealed that indices of both physical and mental health, particularly those related to pain, general health, vitality, mental health, social, and role-emotional functioning, were significantly reduced in patients with combined pathology. The vitality index showed the greatest reduction among the indices that characterize mental health. This index was only 27.3±1.2 in patients with concomitant diseases and 74.8±2.4 (p<0.05) in the control group. Indeed, the patients had asthenia, cancerophobia, emotional lability, hypochondria, and depression, which probably affected the vitality index and the SF-36 scale’s other indices of mental health. The prospects of the study are to evaluate the impact of various treatment options on the quality of life of patients with comorbidity.