Increased Prevalence of Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease Among Patients With Rheumatoid Arthritis: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

Objective: This study was conducted to determine the association between gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) and rheumatoid arthritis (RA) by pooling the evidence from all available studies. Methods: Potentially eligible studies were identified from MEDLINE and EMBASE database from inception to April 2021 employing a search strategy that consisted of terms for “Rheumatoid Arthritis” and “Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease”. Eligible studies for the meta-analysis were recruited with conditions of being cohort studies that included rheumatoid arthritis and without rheumatoid arthritis individuals. Together with this, prevalence of GERD in both groups and the odds ratio (OR) comparing the prevalence of GERD between the two cohorts have been reported. The retrieved point estimates with standard errors from each study were pooled into the final result by the random-effect model and generic inverse variance method as described by DerSimonian and Laird. Results: A total of 3,646 articles were identified. After two rounds of independent review by two investigators, five cohort studies were included in the meta-analysis as they met the eligibility criteria. The pooled analysis demonstrated a significant association between RA and GERD with the pooled odds ratio of 1.98 (95% CI, 1.49 - 2.65). High statistical heterogeneity with I2 of 83% was observed. The funnel plot was symmetric and publication bias was not observed. Conclusion: This systematic review and meta-analysis found a significant association between GERD and RA.