Objectives: Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) has a prevalence of 4.2% in China, causing troublesome symptoms and economic strain with direct and indirect costs that adversely impact patients’ quality of life. This real-world study aimed to assess the economic burden of GERD patients in China by collecting data on cost and utilization of medical resources.

Methods: This study was conducted using electronic medical records of patients diagnosed with GERD in 2 hospitals from January 2015 to December 2017. Medical resource utilization and economic burden of GERD patients was analyzed. Patients were categorized into non-erosive reflux disease (NERD), reflux esophagitis (RE) and Barrett’s esophagus (BE) on the basis of endoscopic assessment report. Average number of annual visits, average medication cost and average investigation cost of these three groups were quantitatively described.

Results: 12,658 GERD patients were included. Average number of annual visits for GERD patients was 1.16, where average medication cost per visit was CNY 206.91, and average cost for investigation per visit was CNY 462.71. Among 22.7% patients underwent gastroscopy, NERD patients accounted for highest proportion (78.2%), followed by RE patients (21.3%) and BE patients (0.5%). For NERD, RE, and BE patients, average number of annual visits were 1.23, 1.38 and 1.36 respectively, average costs for medication were CNY 95.52, CNY 149.85 and CNY 192.76 respectively, and average investigation costs were CNY 790.57, CNY 885.03 and CNY 1117.94 respectively.

Conclusion: Our results demonstrate that number of visits and medical expense have a tendency to increase with aggravation of disease severity, which is worthy of attracting clinical attention.