Table 5. The association between onset time and severity of daily GERD symptoms and cancer mortality after exclusion of cases of esophageal cancer mortality .

Severity of symptoms	Cancer mortality All follow-up			Excluding those with ≤weekly symptoms			Excluding those with ≤weekly symptoms and first 2 years of follow-up
	N	HR1 (95% CI)	HR2 (95% CI)	N	HR1 (95% CI)	HR2 (95% CI)	N	HR1 (95% CI)	HR2 (95% CI)
Excluding EC deaths
Never	1185	Referent	Referent	872	Referent	Referent	872	Referent	Referent
Mild	231	0.90 (0.64–1.25)	0.91 (0.65–1.26)	166	1.67 (0.69–4.08)	1.71 (0.70–4.19)	13	1.78 (0.65–4.82)	1.84 (0.68–4.99)
Moderate	1157	0.98 (0.81–1.18)	0.96 (0.79–1.17)	841	1.09 (0.77–1.54)	1.08 (0.76–1.54)	158	0.81 (0.51–1.29)	0.81 (0.51–1.28)
Severe	399	1.12 (0.85–1.48)	1.13 (0.85–1.48)	304	1.37 (0.93–2.01)	1.40 (0.95–2.06)	120	1.58 (1.03–2.42)	1.61 (1.05–2.47)
p for trend		0.68	0.74		0.14	0.12		0.24	0.23

CI: confidence interval; GERD, gastroesophageal reflux disease; HR, hazard ratio; N, number of deaths.

HR1 (95% CIs) are adjusted for the sociodemographic and lifestyle factors shown in Table 1; HR2 (95% CIs) are additionally adjusted for hypertension and self-reported diabetes and heart disease. The severity of symptoms here was defined as: mild, the study participant did not feel the symptoms unless they actively paid attention; moderate, the study participant felt the symptoms without active attention, but they did not interfere with daily work; severe, symptoms interfering with daily work or causing nighttime awakenings.