Prevalence and risk factors for Barrett’s esophagus in Taiwan

Table 3 Univariate analysis of risk factors in relation to presence of intestinal metaplasia in the subjects with columnar lined epithelium of the esophagus, n (%)

Characteristics	ESEM		P value
	With specialized IM (BE) (n = 89)	No specialized IM (n = 334)
Age (yr) (mean ± SD)	55.63 ± 10.49	51.36 ± 11.27	0.001a
Male gender	73 (82)	226 (67.6)	0.008a
Smoking	23 (25.8)	66 (19.8)	0.211
Consumption of alcohol	43 (48.3)	124 (37.1)	0.055
Consumption of betel nuts	5 (5.6)	6 (1.8)	0.059
Ingestion of coffee	23 (25.8)	90 (26.9)	0.834
Ingestion of tea	26 (29.2)	90 (26.9)	0.67
Presence of hypertension	31 (34.8)	72 (21.6)	0.010a
Presence of cardiovascular disease	33 (37.1)	80 (24)	0.013a
Presence of pulmonary disease	3 (3.4)	10 (3.0)	0.741
Presence of diabetes	8 (9)	26 (7.8)	0.710
Reflux symptoms	3 (3.4)	20 (6.0)	0.437
Waist			0.007a
Normal (< 90 cm for male, < 80 cm for female)	52 (58.4)	244 (73.1)
Obese (≥ 90 cm for male, ≥ 80 cm for female)	37 (41.6)	90 (26.9)
Body fat percentage			0.275
Normal (< 25 cm for male, < 30 cm for female)	50 (56.8)	211 (63.2)
Obese (≥ 25 cm for male, ≥ 30 cm for female)	38 (43.2)	123 (36.8)
Body mass index			0.121
Normal (BMI < 24)	33 (37.1)	157 (47)
Overweight (24 ≤ BMI < 27)	34 (38.2)	122 (36.5)
Obese (27 ≤ BMI)	22 (24.7)	55 (16.5)
H. pylori infection	14 (15.7)	68 (20.4)	0.326
Endoscopic findings
Reflux esophagitis	31 (34.8)	112 (33.5)	0.818
Hiatal hernia	71 (79.8)	289 (86.5)	0.112
Gastritis	68 (76.4)	245 (73.4)	0.56
Gastric ulcer	45 (50.6)	143 (42.8)	0.191
Duodenal ulcer	5 (5.6)	25 (7.5)	0.542
Gastric and duodenal ulcer	47 (52.8)	152 (45.5)	0.22
Inlet patch	8 (9)	30 (9)	0.998
Length of ESEM (cm)	1.42 ± 0.84	1.31 ± 0.48	0.243

^aP < 0.05. BE: Barrett’s esophagus; BMI: Body mass index; ESEM: Endoscopically suspected esophageal metaplasia; H. pylori: Helicobacter pylori; IM: Intestinal metaplasia; SD: Standard deviation.