Table 6. The association between severe daily GERD symptoms and other causes of mortality .

Cause of death	N Total	All follow-up excluding those with ≤weekly symptoms			Excluding first 2 years of follow-up and those with ≤weekly symptoms
		N	HR1 (95% CI)	HR2 (95% CI)	N	HR1 (95% CI)	HR2 (95% CI)
Respiratory	160	78	1.13 (0.68–1.90)	1.16 (0.69–1.96)	58	1.32 (0.73–2.37)	1.38 (0.76–2.49)
Digestive	87	47	1.22 (0.63–2.39)	1.22 (0.62–2.38)	33	1.11 (0.50–2.47)	1.14 (0.51–2.53)
Infectious	83	39	0.62 (0.27–1.44)	0.58 (0.25–1.37)	30	0.73 (0.29–1.85)	0.70 (0.27–1.80)
Genitourinary	79	46	2.09 (1.13–3.87)	1.88 (1.00–3.53)	34	1.53 (0.73–3.19)	1.44 (0.68–3.02)
Endocrine	50	27	0.93 (0.38–2.29)	0.67 (0.27–1.70)	18	1.13 (0.39–3.32)	0.79 (0.26–2.38)
Neurologic	34	13	2.11 (0.59–7.52)	2.31 (0.65–8.27)	11	2.90 (0.75–11.27)	3.25 (0.83–12.77)
External	194	107	1.14 (0.70–1.85)	1.12 (0.69–1.82)	69	0.96 (0.50–1.82)	0.96 (0.50–1.83)
Unknown	136	63	1.44 (0.82–2.55)	1.45 (0.81–2.58)	53	0.96 (0.49–1.87)	0.96 (0.49–1.89)
Other	14	8	Incalculable *	Incalculable *	6	Incalculable *	Incalculable *

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

The causes of death in this table do not include cancer or circulatory deaths. All HRs (95% CIs) are the risk of mortality associated with severe GERD symptoms (vs. no symptoms). Results for mild and moderate symptoms are not shown here.

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.

* None of those who died in this category had daily severe GERD.