S3155 Food-Related Quality of Life Is Associated With Symptom Anxiety in Gastroparesis

Introduction: Food-related quality of life (FRQOL) refers to how a person’s medical condition may affect their relationship with food/eating, and includes constructs like hypervigilance around food/eating, the effects of navigating eating on mood, social isolation related to food/eating, and the experience of food as a trigger for symptoms. The aim of this study is to explore FRQOL in patients with gastroparesis and its association with symptom severity and other cognitive affective factors. Methods: We recruited adult patients diagnosed with gastroparesis via gastric scintigraphy to complete measures assessing symptom severity, gastrointestinal-related quality of life, hypervigilance, and symptom-specific anxiety, FRQOL, and depression/anxiety. Data were described using mean and standard deviation for normally distributed continuous variables, median and interquartile range for non-normally distributed continuous variables, and frequency (percentage) for categorical variables. The Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient was used to assess the relationship between questionnaire scores. Analyses were performed using R software and a significance level of 0.05 was assumed for all tests. Results: The final sample included 119 adults. Median age was 43.5 years, 95.8% White, 97.2% Non-Hispanic, 88.1% women. Thirty-two-point eight percent of the sample have ever required nutrition support (11.8% gastric feeds, 25.2% jejunal feeds, 15.1% total parenteral nutrition). While 55.5% of the sample reported their weight has decreased since diagnosis, with the majority (68%) having lost over 22 lb since diagnosis, 25.2% reported their weight has increased. Patients reported a moderate level of symptom severity (Mean Patient Assessment of Gastrointestinal Disorders-Symptom Severity Index = 54.9 [17.0]) and low FRQOL (Median FRQOL29 = 42.0). Hypervigilance to physical sensation (R = -0.62; P < 0.001), symptom-specific anxiety (R = -0.6; P < 0.001), and gastroparesis symptom severity (R = -0.52; P < 0.001) were moderately associated with FRQOL. Health-related quality of life (R = -0.3; P = 0.001), depression (R = -0.31; P = 0.002), and anxiety (R = -0.39; P < 0.001) were weakly associated with FRQOL. Conclusion: Hypervigilance and symptom anxiety were the most closely associated with FRQOL in patients with gastroparesis, beyond symptom severity and general mental health. This suggests targeting these cognitive affective factors is likely to help improve FRQOL, as patients’ fear around food/eating is often driven by fear of the symptoms that may result from eating.