Table 1.
Socio-demographic and disease characteristics of patients allocated to GERD-education vs. control groups, recorded at baseline.
| Education (n = 102) | Control (n = 109) | |
| Age, years | 47 (12) | 47 (14) |
| Sex (female) | 49% | 50% |
| Primary school only | 31% | 34% |
| Cohabitating | 77% | 80% |
| Blue-collar worker | 22% | 22% |
| BMI (kg/m2) | 26 (3.6) | 26 (4.7) |
| Previous history of serious disease | 14% | 17% |
| Length of GERD history (months) | 166 (151) | 169 (154) |
| Esophagitis | 60% | 51% |
| Having used H2-blocker or PPI | 72% | 63% |
| Ranitidine responder | 41% (n = 74) | 47% (n = 71) |
| Somatic comorbidity | 53% | 54% |
| Psychiatric comorbidity | 8% | 10% |
Continuous variables are means (SD), categorical variables are percentages.