The relationship of anxiety level with helicobacter pylori, gastric metaplasia and other gastric findings in patients undergoing endoscopy

Purpose: This study aims to examine the effect of anxiety on gastric precancerous lesions by revealing the relationship of anxiety level with helicobacter pylori (H. pylori), gastric metaplasia and other gastric lesions.Materials and methods: Patients, who underwent endoscopy due to stomach complaints in the general surgery clinic and whose anxiety levels were measured simultaneously with the Beck Anxiety Inventory, were included in the study. Anxiety levels of the participants were categorized as normal, mild, moderate and severe. Endoscopically, whether there were peptic ulcus (PU), loose gastroesophageal sphincter (GES), gastritis, gastric ulcer, stomach mass, polyp, reflux and hiatal hernia were investigated. In pathological samples, the existence of H. pylori, gastric metaplasia (G. metaplasia), gastric dysplasia (G. dysplasia), gastritis, gastric atrophy, lymphoid aggregate and malignancy were examined. The relationship of anxiety level with endoscopic and pathological diagnoses was evaluated.Results: The study included 120 patients undergoing endoscopy and completing the Beck Anxiety Scale. The mean age of the patients was 49.09 years, while 56.7% of them were female. While no statistically significant relationship was found between anxiety level and antral gastritis (AG), gastric ulcer (GU), pangastritis, reflux esophagitis (RE), hiatal hernia (HH), gastric polyp (GP), alkaline gastritis (AG), a significant relationship was observed between anxiety level and loose GES (r:0.252, p:0.004), P. ulcus (r:-0.177, p:0.047), H. pylori (r:-0.141, p:0.034), intestinal metaplasia (r:-0.120, p:0.048) and malignancy (r:0.199, p:0.025).Conclusion: This study revealed that high anxiety level may cause P. ulcus, GES looseness and H. pylori positivity in addition to gastric metaplasia and gastric malign lesions.