Previous studies on dyspepsia did not report their results by race/ethnicity. Therefore, investigating dyspepsia in African-American and Hispanic populations is a distinctive characteristic of our study. We focused on the etiology of dyspepsia in relation to age and alarm features among African-American and Hispanic patients. Our study indicated that the presence of alarm features in [...]

The study included 357 African-American patients (178 males, 179 females) and 321 Hispanic patients (154 males, 167 females) (Table 1). The most frequent alarm features among the study population was age (>50 years) followed by anemia, weight loss, and gastrointestinal bleeding. About three-quarters of the patients (72%) were over 50 years of age. The prevalence [...]

Study Population and Study Site The King-Drew Medical Center is an inner-city community teaching hospital serving a predominantly African-American and Hispanic population. Medical records of 764 patients 22-98 years of age with investigated dyspepsia were identified for a retrospective review. Demographic information, presence or absence of alarm features, and the results of the endoscopic and/or [...]

INTRODUCTION Dyspepsia, derived from the Greek “dys” (bad, difficult) and “pepsis” (digestion), is defined as pain or discomfort in the upper abdomen. Dyspepsia is a common symptom with a prevalence of up to 40% in the general population. Dyspepsia is responsible for more than 11 million physician office visits annually. More than half of these [...]