Background

Guidelines suggest that patients with nondysplastic Barrett's esophagus (BE) undergo endoscopic surveillance every 3 to 5 years, but actual use of surveillance endoscopy and the determinants of variation in surveillance intervals are not known.

Objective

To measure use of surveillance endoscopy and its variation in patients with nondysplastic BE.

Design

Multicenter, cross-sectional study.

Setting

Three sites in Arizona, Minnesota, and North Carolina.

Patients

This study involved patients who had prevalent BE without a history of high-grade dysplasia or esophageal adenocarcinoma.

Intervention

Participants were given validated measures of quality of life, numeracy, and cancer risk perception, and the total number of prior endoscopic surveillance examinations was measured.

Main outcome measurements

Oversurveillance was defined as >1 surveillance examination per 3-year period.

Results

Among 235 patients with nondysplastic BE, 76% were male and 94% were white. The average (± standard deviation [SD]) duration of BE was 6.5 ± 5.9 years. The mean (± SD) number of endoscopies per 3-year period was 2.7 ± 2.6. Oversurveillance was present in 65% of participants, resulting in a mean of 2.3 excess endoscopies per patient. Neither numeracy skills nor patient perception of cancer risk were associated with oversurveillance.

Limitations

Endoscopies were measured by patient report, which is subject to error. Results may be generalizable only to patients seen in academic centers.

Conclusion

Most patients with nondysplastic BE had more surveillance endoscopic examinations than is recommended by published guidelines. Patient factors did not predict oversurveillance, indicating that other factors may influence decisions about the interval and frequency of surveillance examinations.