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Dietary and Lifestyle Factors 

Associated with Dyspepsia among 

Pre-clinical Medical Students in 

Ajman, United Arab Emirates 
 

Noorallah Jaber1, Marwa Oudah1, 

Amer Kowatli1, Jabir Jibril1, 

Inbisat Baig1, Elsheba Mathew2, 

Aji Gopakumar3, Jayakumary 

Muttappallymyalil2 

 
1Gulf Medical University, Ajman, United 
Arab Emirates; 2Department of 
Community Medicine, Gulf Medical 
University, Ajman, United Arab Emirates; 
3Statistical Support Facility, Gulf Medical 
University, Ajman, United Arab Emirates 

 

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Abstract 

Introduction: Dyspepsia is a common gastrointestinal diseases worldwide with a prevalence ranging from 7 to 40%. Dyspepsia, 

more commonly known as heartburn or indigestion, is defined as one or more of the following symptoms: postprandial fullness, 

early satiation (the inability to finish a normal size meal), or epigastric pain or burning for at least 3 months in the past year. 

Dyspepsia has been studied extensively, but little is known of factors associated with dyspepsia among medical students.  

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to analyze the prevalence of dyspepsia and to evaluate the association between lifestyle 

and dietary factors associated with dyspepsia among pre-clinical medical students in Ajman, United Arab Emirates. 

Methods: A cross-sectional survey study was conducted among pre-clinical medical students at Gulf Medical University, Ajman 

and collected basic demographic data, dyspepsia prevalence, dietary factors, and lifestyle factors. Data was analyzed using 

Microsoft Excel and SPSS software. Descriptive statistics were used to summarize the participant characteristics. Chi-square tests 

were used to test the association between dietary and lifestyle factors and dyspepsia. Logistic regression was used to measure the 

association of predictors (dietary and lifestyle factors) on the odds of having dyspepsia, independently. Multinomial logistic 

regression was used to examine the full association of predictors on the odds of having dyspepsia. 

Results: The resulting sample was 176 pre-clinical medical students, with a mean age of 20.67 ± 2.57 years. A total of 77 (43.8%) 

respondents reported having dyspepsia while 99 (56.2%) did not. There was a significant association between smoking and 

dyspepsia (p<0.05), as well as a marginally significant association between inadequate sleep and dyspepsia (p<0.10). There was 

no significant association with alcohol or analgesic use on dyspesia. Dietary habits showed no association with dyspepsia.  

Conclusion: Dyspepsia was reported by 43.8% of the repondents. These findings emphasize the importance of improving lifestyle 

and dietary factors associated with dyspepsia and raising awareness of reducing risk factors associated with dyspepsia. Further 

studies are needed on dyspepsia in a larger cohort of students in order to fully understand the complexity of this problem and be 

able to generalize the findings to other cohorts. 

Keywords: dyspepsia, lifestyle factors, dietary factors, smoking, analgesic, alcohol, medical students 

 

Dietary and Lifestyle Factors 

Associated with Dyspepsia among 

Pre-clinical Medical Students in 

Ajman, United Arab Emirates 
 

Noorallah Jaber1, Marwa Oudah1, 

Amer Kowatli1, Jabir Jibril1, Inbisat 

Baig1, Elsheba Mathew2, Aji 

Gopakumar3, Jayakumary 

Muttappallymyalil2 

 

1Gulf Medical University, Ajman, United Arab 
Emirates; 2Department of Community 
Medicine, Gulf Medical University, Ajman, 
United Arab Emirates; 3Statistical Support 
Facility, Gulf Medical University, Ajman, 
United Arab Emirates 

Research 

Dyspepsia is a term that is often used to 

characterize abdominal pain centered in the epigastrium 

and is often combined with other gastrointestinal 

disorders. Historically, ‘dyspepsia’ originates from the 

Greek ‘δυς-’ (dys-) and ‘πέψη’ (pepse), which means 

indigestion.1 In the mid-18th century, it was thought to 

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be one of the ‘nervous disorders,’ along with 

hypochondria and hysteria.2 The Rome criteria was 

developed to classify the functional gastrointestinal 

disorders (FGIDs), disorders of the digestive system in 

which symptoms cannot be explained by the presence of 

structural or tissue abnormality, based on clinical 

symptoms. Rome II, defined dyspepsia as a pain or 

discomfort centered in the upper abdomen,3 specifically 

one or more of the following symptoms: postprandial 

fullness, early satiation (meaning inability to finish a 

normal size meal) epigastric pain or burning with at least 

a 3 month history in the last year.4 Some disorders may 

cause dyspepsia, such as gastroesophageal reflux disease 

(GERD), peptic ulcer, lactose intolerance, cholecystitis, 

anxiety or depression, stomach cancer, and often as a side 

effect of alcohol or medication.5 One of the risk factors 

for dyspepsia is lifestyle habits (e.g. smoking, increased 

caffeine intake) and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory 

drug use (e.g. aspirin), which is more relevant to ulcer 

dyspepsia.6 

A study conducted in Columbia (N=937 

students) on the prevalence of dyspepsia, concluded that 

around 40% of students had frequent dyspepsia.7 The 

annual incidence of dyspepsia was 9-10% and chronic 

dyspepsia was 15% with frequency of occurrence greater 

than 3 months in a year.8,9 Certain studies defined 

dyspepsia as “upper abdominal pain” in which 

prevalence of uninvestigated dyspepsia ranges from 7% 

to 34.2%.10-15 A study examining gastrointestinal 

symptoms in a multiracial Asian population reported that 

the prevalence of uninvestigated dyspepsia (a type of 

functional dyspepsia in which symptoms do not clearly 

fit standard definitions) is lowest in Singapore at 7.9% 

and highest in New Zealand with 34.2% of the population 

affected by the disease.14 Dyspepsia prevalence was 

reported as 7-8% in South East Asia,14 30.4% in India,15 

14.5% in Scandinavian countries,16 and 23.0-25.8% in 

the U.S.16 The studies that defined dyspepsia as “upper 

gastrointestinal symptoms” reported prevalence of 

dyspepsia 23-25% with lower prevalence reported in 

Spain (23.9%).17 The prevalence rate of uninvestigated 

dyspepsia in US has been reported to be 32%, 38-41% 

reported in UK, and prevalence in Nigeria estimated at 

45%.18-23 

Dyspepsia has also been defined as pain 

centered in the upper abdomen and associated 

discomforts such as distention, belching, nausea or 

anorexia.24-26 A community-based study on the 

epidemiology of dyspepsia reported that 34.1% of 

respondents had dyspepsia within the past year.27 A study 

done in Kuwaiti dyspeptic patients reported that the 

overall prevalence of Helicobacter pylori (HP) infection 

related to dyspepsia was 88.5%.28 Various notable 

research studies have shown that dyspepsia is common, 

but the relationship between  individualized symptoms, 

diet, and pathophysiology of dyspepsia remains 

unclear.27 

Potential lifestyle factors associated with 

dyspepsia include tobacco, alcohol, and analgesic 

consumption. Furthermore, dietary habits that include 

consumption of smoked food, fast food, salty food, 

coffee/tea, and spicy food were associated with 

aggravating the symptoms of dyspepsia; while fruits, 

vegetables, and water were noted to improve the 

symptoms.29-32 Studies showed that smoking negatively 

affects dyspepsia symptoms by decreasing mucosal 

production, limiting the neutralizing base production, and 

decreasing blood flow to the inner layers of the stomach, 

interfering with normal physiological protective 

mechanisms of the stomach.33-35 The analgesic effects are 

explained as delayed gastric emptying, increased pyloric 

zonal contraction, and the release of acid.36 Alcohol has a 

similar role in damaging the stomach as analgesics, 

where it increases the production of acid.37 

Though dyspepsia is a common problem among 

students, probably due to the interaction of various 

factors, there is no published research on the associations 

of dietary and lifestyle factors on dyspepsia among 

medical students. Previous studies have found risk 

factors such as diet, health, and lifestyle affect and 

exacerbate symptoms of dyspepsia. Therefore, we 

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conducted a study among the pre-clinical medical 

students of one medical university in United Arab 

Emirates (UAE) to identify the magnitude of dyspepsia 

among them and the associated risk factors. This is one 

of the first of its kind in the UAE that has been designed 

to provide a better understanding of the problem, as well 

as to guide future lifestyle intervention programs.  

 

Methods 

This cross-sectional survey study was 

conducted among pre-clinical medical students in Gulf 

Medical University, Ajman, UAE from September 2013 

to March 2014. The total number of students in the three 

pre-clinical years of MBBS (MBBS year 1-3) was 176. 

All of the pre-clinical medical students who agreed to 

participate were included in the study.  

As adequate TOEFL/IELTS score is a basic 

requirement for the university acceptance, all 

questionnaires were administered in English. A pilot 

feasibility study was conducted by administering the 

draft of the questionnaire to 5 students. After obtaining 

approval from the Ethics and Research Committees of 

GMU, the investigators recruited the participants using 

email and paper invitations. The survey was administered 

after obtaining the written consent of the participants. 

Data were collected in the classrooms during free time to 

ensure maximum participation. The investigators were 

present at the time of survey completion and were 

available to answer participant questions about the 

survey. 

Self-report questionnaires were used to gather 

data on basic participant characteristics, dyspepsia 

prevalence, dietary factors, and lifestyle factors. The 

Short-Form Leeds Dyspepsia Questionnaire assessed the 

prevalence of dyspepsia.18 A separate questionnaire was 

used to examine lifestyle factors regarding smoking, 

consumption of alcohol, and use of analgesics. Here, 

analgesic use refers to over the counter analgesics such 

as paracetamol (acetaminophen), brufen (ibuprofen), 

aspirin, etc. A final questionnaire examined dietary 

factors such as the frequency of consumption of various 

food types. Short-Form Leeds Dyspepsia Questionnaire 

was scored as per the instructions in the manual. The 

summed up total score of the frequency and severity 

responses for each symptom was calculated. Categorized 

scores were calculated by rating the single most frequent 

or severe symptom from 0 (not at all) to 4 (once a day or 

more).The range was 0-32 and the cut off value for 

dyspepsia was 7 or more. A lifestyle questionnaire was 

made based on 2 sets of questions. The first set asked 

about the tobacco, alcohol, and analgesic intake. The next 

set assessed general lifestyle risk factors of dyspepsia and 

they were scored according to the number of risk factors 

marked as “often”; 1-3 risk factors as mild, 4-6 as 

moderate and 7-9 as severe. The sensitivity test of Short-

Form Leeds Dyspepsia Questionnaire is 77.3% and the 

specificity is 73.2%.38 

Data was analyzed using Microsoft Excel and 

Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) 

software version 20 in four major steps. First, descriptive 

statistics were used to summarize the participant 

characteristics. Secondly, chi-square tests were used to 

test the association between dietary and lifestyle factors 

and dyspepsia. Thirdly, simple logistic regression was 

used to measure the association of predictors (dietary and 

lifestyle factors) on the odds of having dyspepsia, 

independently. Finally, multinomial logistic regression 

was used to examine the full association of predictors on 

the odds of having dyspepsia. A p<0.05 was considered 

as significant.  

 

Results 

The mean age of the participants was 

20.67±2.57 years, with 45.5% male participants. Table 1 

shows the distribution of participant characteristics. 

Males did not differ significantly from females in terms 

of age distribution (20.90±2.83 years and 20.48±2.32 

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years, respectively). Participants aged 20 years and older 

made up 51.7% of the study population.  

 

Table 1: Participant descriptive characteristics 

 

Table 2 summarizes lifestyle factors and dietary 

factors of the study participants. Tobacco users were 

defined as ever smokers and never smokers (who had not 

ever smoked in their life time). Ever smokers included 

both current and former smokers, as they smoked at least 

once in their life time, and the type of tobacco products 

considered were Cigar, Bidi, Shisha, and Midwakh 

(Dokha). Participants’ alcoholic habits were also 

categorized as ever alcohol consumer (including current 

and former users) and non-consumers. The majority of 

the participants were non-smokers (79%) and a higher 

proportion reported no alcohol consumption (86.4%). 

However, 97 (65.5%) reported having used analgesics 

often.  

In terms of dietary consumption, majority of 

students were not consuming of smoked food, fast food, 

salty food, coffee/tea, and spicy food.  Most of the 

participants (65.3%) reported that they were not 

performing any physical activities, and almost half 

(45.5%) of the participants self-reported inadequate sleep 

in the last two months. 

 

Table 2: Distribution of participants based on lifestyle 

and dietary factors 

 

Out of 176 participants, 77 (43.8%) participants 

reported experiencing dyspepsia and 99 (56.3%) reported 

no dyspepsia. Table 3 shows the association between the 

sociodemographic characteristics and dyspepsia. No 

statistically significant association was observed for age 

group, gender, nationality, and marital status with 

dyspepsia. With regard to batch of study, there was found 

statistical significant association with dyspepsia 

(p<0.05). Among the total participants with dyspepsia, 34 

(44.2%) were belonged to the year 2 MBBS batch.  

 

Table 3: Association between sociodemographic 

characteristics and dyspepsia 

 

Table 4 shows the distribution of participants’ 

lifestyle factors, including smoking, alcohol, and 

analgesic usage in relation to dyspepsia. Among the 

respondents with dyspepsia, 22 (28.6%) were ever 

smokers whereas 55 (71.4%) were never smokers. The 

association observed was statistically significant 

(p<0.05). No statistically significant association was 

observed for alcohol consumption and analgesic use with 

dyspepsia. 

 

Table 4: Association between substance use and 

dyspepsia 

 

Table 5 describes the distribution of participants 

according to dietary factors and their association with 

dyspepsia. Consumption of smoked food, fast food, and 

salty food has been associated with higher occurrence of 

dyspepsia. Among the participants with dyspepsia, 41 

(53.2%) had history of inadequate sleep, which trended 

towards being significantly associated with dyspapesia 

(p<0.10). No statistical significant association was 

observed between for any other dietary factors and 

dyspepsia. 

 

Table 5: Association between dietary factors and 

dyspepsia 

Chi-square test showed batch of study, 

participant’s tobacco use and inadequate sleep trended 

towards a significant association (p<0.10) with the 

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occurrence of dyspepsia. In a secondary analysis, simple 

logistic regression was performed on these variables. All 

variables except inadequate sleep were statistically 

significant with p<0.05; however, inadequate sleep did 

show trends towards significance (p<0.10). In the final 

multinomial logistic regression model, tobacco use was 

found statistically significant (p<0.05). After adjusting 

for batch of study, it was concluded that tobacco use as 

the most predictable factor of dyspepsia (OR: 2.19, 

p<0.05, 95%CI: 1.02, 4.71). Moreover, both the factors 

are found to be independent without any confounding 

effect (since crude and adjusted odds ratios are almost 

same in both the variables). From Table 6, it was 

concluded that there is 2.2 greater odds (95%CI: 1.02, 

4.71) of dyspepsia in tobacco users compared to non-

users and 2.4 greater odds (95%CI: 1.16, 5.14) 

occurrence in Batch II MBBS students compared to other 

batches. 

 

Table 6. Logistic regression of predictors of dyspepsia 

 

Discussion 

The study was conducted among 176 students of 

the junior three batches of the MBBS program offered at 

Gulf Medical University, Ajman, UAE to assess the 

prevalence of self-reported dyspepsia among pre-clinical 

students and its association with lifestyle and dietary 

factors. 

In a study conducted by Novis et al., the 

population selected was healthy male and female 

students.39 The results found that out of 142 students 68 

had developed dyspepsia during a period of 10 years.39 In 

a study conducted among randomly selected people in 

Peru, prevalence of dyspepsia was 37.6%. The 

prevalence of dyspepsia decreased as age increased. 

Ethnicity and dyspepsia were highly associated.40 

A study was conducted by Rashed et al., to 

determine the incidence and significance of detection of 

H. pylori in an Arab population, observed that among 116 

patients with dyspepsia 89% had H. pylori.41 It was 

suggested that H. pylori might be hyper-endemic among 

Arab patients with dyspepsia.41 

A study survey of functional dyspepsia among 

the ethnic Malays in a primary care setting found results 

in which of the married subjects, females were more 

likely to have functional dyspepsia and psychosocial 

symptoms than men (6.3% vs. 1.9%).42 However, our 

study found that males were more likely to have 

dyspepsia in both married and single groups.  

Our study found that smoking tobacco was 

associated with a significantly increased odds of having 

dyspepsia, similar to a study in Australia that identified 

smoking as an independent risk factor for dyspepsia (OR: 

2.1, 95%CI: 1.3, 3.6).43 In our research 139 (78.9%) 

individuals who do not smoke have dyspepsia. A study 

conducted at University of Manchester in Saudi Arabia 

to determine the prevalence of smoking among medical 

and non-medical students showed that only 0.86% of 

students in college of medicine smoked tobacco 

products.44 A total of 74 (8.5%) reported smokers and 

785 (91.5%) were nonsmokers. The same research 

highlighted the impact of alcohol on dyspepsia. It 

indicated that individuals who consume alcohol of 7 or 

more times per week have higher risk of reporting 

dyspepsia (OR: 2.3; 95% CI: 1.1, 5.0).44 In our study, 

45.8% of participants who drank alcohol had dyspepsia 

compared to the participants who never drank alcohol 

(43.4%), while not significant these results warrant 

additional investigation. 

Dyspepsia is more common in middle aged 

females.45 Published evidence suggested that 

independent risk factors for dyspepsia included the use of 

aspirin (OR: 2.2; 95%CI: 1.3, 3.7) and smoking (OR: 2.1; 

95%CI: 1.3, 3.6), but not age, sex, marital status, 

educational level, income, or the use of alcohol, coffee, 

or nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs.44 While there 

was a trend for increased dyspepsia among analgesics 

users, this relationship was not statistically siginifcant.  

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Results of a study in China indicated that 

prevalence of smoking was higher among college under-

graduate students.46 A study conducted in Brazil shows 

that alcohol and tobacco were the substances more 

frequently used by the students, 85.2% and 16.3% 

respectively among medical students.47 It was also 

reported that 30 percent alcohol users in society were 

susceptible to developing dyspepsia.48 Another study 

reports alcohol consumption has been identified as one of 

the causes of dyspepsia.49 

The management of uninvestigated dyspepsia 

traditionally included the reduction and cessation of 

coffee intake, although there was no strong research 

evidence that these changes in lifestyle could relieve the 

upper gastrointestinal symptoms.50 In our research, the 

percent of medical students that consumed coffee and tea 

on regular basis was 81 (46.0%). There was no 

significant association was found between coffee and tea 

intake and dyspepsia.  

Nearly two-third of the medical students 

included in this study did not engage in physical activity. 

A similar research study conducted among medical 

students in the United Arab Emirates concluded that 77% 

of the students do not engage in any physical activity.51 

In this study, engagement in physical activity was not 

associated with dyspepsia. 

In summary, the following factors showed a 

trend in the relation with dyspepsia: tobacco use, alcohol 

use, and the use of analgesics. These factors were highly 

linked with the increasing prevalence of dyspepsia 

amongst pre-clinical students in Gulf Medical 

University, Ajman, UAE.  

Limitation 

Findings of this study cannot be generalized to 

the general population of UAE or populations outside 

UAE; however, they may have important implications for 

student populations. Recall bias was present because 

some parts of the questionnaire required the students to 

recall previous events in the past few months. As most 

students in this study are expatriates, knowledge about 

family history may have been incomplete due to lack of 

knowledge about family members living elsewhere. 

Another limitation related to the concept of dyspepsia is 

that it was self-reported dyspepsia identified on the 

symptoms of indigestion, regurgitation, feeling of 

heartburn and nausea; the current study did not involve 

clinical confirmation of dyspepsia prevalence. 

 

Conclusion 

Results of this study indicated that 43.8% of 

pre-clinical medical students had dyspepsia. History of 

smoking was significantly associated with dyspepsia 

while alcohol intake, analgesic use and other socio-

demographic characteristics were not. Batch of study was 

also found association with dyspepsia as students’ stress 

and academic factors were related to their level of study. 

The dietary factors such as consumption of smoked food, 

fast food, salty food, fruits and vegetables, coffee, spicy 

food, water, and level of physical activity had no 

association with dyspepsia; however, inadequate sleep 

trended towards having a significant influence on 

dyspepsia. Although smoking habit and batch of study 

were found to be independent factors without any 

confounding effect, the present study concluded that 

tobacco use as the most predictive factor for dyspepsia 

among preclinical medical students in Ajman, UAE.  

 

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Table 1:  Participant descriptive characteristics 

Variables  Groups  

Gender 

Male Female 

N (%) N (%) 

Age group  ≤20 36 (42.4) 49 (57.6) 

>20 44 (48.4) 47 (51.6) 

Batch   2011 26 (49.1) 27 (50.9) 

2012 31 (51.7) 29 (48.3) 

2013 23 (36.5) 40 (63.5) 

Nationality  Arabs 48 (55.8) 38 (44.2) 

Non- Arabs 32 (35.6) 58 (64.4) 

Marital status Married 3 (27.3) 8 (72.7) 

Single 77 (46.7) 88 (53.3) 

 

  

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Central Asian Journal of Global Health 

Volume 5, No. 1 (2016)  |  ISSN 2166-7403 (online)   |  DOI 10.5195/cajgh.2016.192  |  http://cajgh.pitt.edu 

  

 

Table 2: Distribution of participants based on lifestyle and dietary factors 

Lifestyle factors N (%) 

Tobacco use  

     Ever smoked 37 (21.0) 

     Never smoked 139 (79.0) 

Alcohol consumption  

     Ever drank alcohol 24 (13.6) 

     Never drank alcohol 152 (86.4) 

Analgesics use  

     Yes 97 (65.5) 

     No 51 (34.5) 

Dietary factors  N (%) 

Smoked food Consumption  

     Yes 14 (8.0) 

     No 162 (92.0) 

Fast food consumption  

     Yes 59 (33.5) 

     No 117 (66.5) 

Salty food consumption  

     Yes 61 (34.7) 

     No 115 (65.3) 

Fruit/Vegetable consumption  

     Yes 74 (42.0) 

     No 102 (58.0) 

Coffee/Tea consumption  

     Yes 81 (46.0) 

     No 95 (54.0) 

Spicy food consumption  

     Yes 74 (42.0) 

     No 102 (58.0) 

Beverage consumption during meals  

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     Yes 115 (65.3) 

     No 61 (34.7) 

Physical activity  

     Yes 61 (34.7) 

     No 115 (65.3) 

Inadequate sleep  

     Yes 80 (45.5) 

     No 96 (54.5) 

Note. All dietary factors refer to dietary consumption. Details given for dietary consumption, physical activity 

and sleep are of the past two months. 

 

  

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Central Asian Journal of Global Health 

Volume 5, No. 1 (2016)  |  ISSN 2166-7403 (online)   |  DOI 10.5195/cajgh.2016.192  |  http://cajgh.pitt.edu 

  

 

Table 3: Association between sociodemographic characteristics and dyspepsia 

Sociodemographics Groups 

Dyspepsia 

p value Yes No 

N (%) N (%)  

Age group in years ≤20 38 (44.7) 47 (55.3) 0.875 

 >20 39 (42.9) 52 (57.1) 

Gender Male 36 (45.0) 44 (55.0) 0.76 

 Female 41 (42.7) 55 (57.3) 

Batch I MBBS 20 (37.7) 33 (62.3) 0.045 

 II MBBS 34 (56.7) 26 (43.3) 

III MBBS 23 (36.5) 40 (63.5) 

Nationality Arabs 34 (39.5) 52 (60.5) 0.271 

 Non-Arabs 43 (47.8) 47 (52.2) 

Marital status Married 6 (54.5) 5 (45.5) 0.537 

Single 71 (43.0) 94 (57.0) 

  

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of its D-Scribe Digital Publishing Program and is cosponsored by the University of Pittsburgh Press. 

 

Central Asian Journal of Global Health 

Volume 5, No. 1 (2016)  |  ISSN 2166-7403 (online)   |  DOI 10.5195/cajgh.2016.192  |  http://cajgh.pitt.edu 

 

 

Table 4: Association between substance use and dyspepsia 

Lifestyle factors Groups 

Dyspepsia 

p value Yes No 

N (%) N (%)  

Tobacco use Ever smoked 22 (59.5) 15 (40.5) 0.030 

 Never smoked 55 (39.6) 84 (60.4) 

Alcohol use Ever drank 11 (45.8) 13 (54.2) 0.825 

 Never drank 66 (43.4) 86 (56.6) 

Analgesic use Users 47 (48.5) 50 (51.5) 0.283 

Non-users 30 (38.0) 49 (62.0) 

 

  

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of its D-Scribe Digital Publishing Program and is cosponsored by the University of Pittsburgh Press. 

 

Central Asian Journal of Global Health 

Volume 5, No. 1 (2016)  |  ISSN 2166-7403 (online)   |  DOI 10.5195/cajgh.2016.192  |  http://cajgh.pitt.edu 

  

 

Table 5: Association between dietary factors and dyspepsia 

Dietary factors 

 Dyspepsia 

 

Groups 

Yes No 

N (%) N (%) p value 

Smoked food consumption  Yes 7 (50.0) 7 (50.0) 0.623 

 No 70 (43.2) 92 (56.8) 

Fast food consumption  Yes 29 (49.2) 30 (50.8) 0.305 

 No 48 (41.0) 69 (59.0) 

Salty food consumption Yes 29 (47.5) 32 (52.5) 0.460 

 No 48 (41.7) 67 (58.3) 

Fruit/Vegetable consumption  Yes 30 (40.5) 44 (59.5) 0.465 

 No 47 (46.1) 55 (53.9) 

Coffee/Tea consumption Yes 35 (43.2) 46 (56.8) 0.894 

 No 42 (44.2) 53 (55.8) 

Spicy food consumption Yes 33 (44.6) 41 (55.4) 0.847 

 No 44 (43.1) 58 (56.9) 

Beverage consumption during 

meals 

Yes 53 (46.1) 62 (53.9) 0.391 

 No 24 (39.3) 37 (60.7) 

Physical activity Yes 28 (45.9) 33 (54.1) 0.675 

 No 49 (42.6) 66 (57.4) 

Inadequate sleep Yes 41 (51.2) 39 (48.8) 0.060 

 No 36 (37.5) 60 (62.5) 

 

 

 

 

 

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JABER 

 

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Central Asian Journal of Global Health 

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Table 6: Logistic regression of predictors of dyspepsia  

 Crude Adjusted 

Variables OR (95% CI) OR (95% CI) 

Study batch   

     I MBBS 1.05 (0.50 – 2.25) 1.27 (0.58 – 2.78) 

     II MBBS 2.27 (1.10 – 4.69)* 2.44 (1.16 – 5.14)* 

     Ref: III MBBS 1 (--) 1 (--) 

Tobacco use   

     Ever smoked 2.24 (1.07 – 4.69) 2.19 (1.02 – 4.71)* 

     Ref: Never smoked 1 (--) 1 (--) 

Note. *Denotes p<0.05 

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