journey08

Most will never have heard of Barrett’s oesophagus prior to their diagnosis, but actually Barrett’s is quite common.

The precise number of people is not known, because most people with reflux will not undergo a gastroscopy. Additionally, as previously mentioned, people can have reflux without getting symptoms.

From studies where they have undertaken a gastroscopy on a sample of the population we can estimate that about 1 in 100 adults may have Barrett’s oesophagus, which would equate to over 600000 people in the UK.

We only know a small minority of cases, although more than 11000 new people are diagnosed with Barrett’s in England and Wales every year.

It is more common in men with an average age of diagnosis of around 55years.

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[Since this talk, more research has shown Barrett's may be more common than previously thought. See our discussion paper here.]