Natural history of heartburn: A 10-year population-based study

Table 3 Sociodemographic characteristics and the development and disappearance of heartburn

	n	Never HB (%)	Lost HB (%)	Retained HB (%)	Developed HB (%)	χ2	P-value
Gender						1.687	0.640
Male	330	40.3	14.5	30.3	14.8
Female	441	41.5	14.7	26.5	17.2
Age group (yr)						15.542	< 0.05a
66-85	170	54.8	10.6	27.1	10.6
36-65	488	37.3	16.4	29.3	17.0
28-35	113	40.7	13.3	24.8	21.2
BMI (kg/m2)						21.685	< 0.01b
> 30	154	31.8	14.3	37.0	16.9
> 25 and ≤ 30	314	37.3	14.3	31.5	16.9
≤ 25	286	49.3	15.0	19.9	15.7
Level of education						6.156	0.724
> 4 years’ further education	225	39.6	12.9	28.9	18.7
3-4 years’ further education	279	41.9	17.6	25.1	15.4
< 3 years’ further education	92	39.1	13.0	33.7	14.1
No further education	161	41.6	13.0	29.8	15.5
Employment status						6.276	0.099
Employed	574	39.7	15.5	27.0	17.8
No employment	189	44.4	12.2	31.7	11.6
Alcohol						4.503	0.609
≥ 7 drinks per week	43	37.2	9.3	34.9	18.6
1-6 drinks per week	404	39.1	14.6	28.2	18.1
No alcohol	309	43.0	15.5	27.5	13.9
Smoking						8.773	0.187
Smokers, > 15 cigarettes per day	63	34.9	20.6	25.4	19.0
Smokers, ≤ 15 cigarettes per day	113	31.9	17.7	34.5	15.9
No smoking	496	43.5	13.7	26.2	16.5

^aP < 0.05,

^bP < 0.01. HB: Heartburn; BMI: Body mass index.