Incidence of perforated duodenal and gastric ulcer in Oxford.

Comments on the incidence and natural history of gastric and duodenal ulcer

“…Recently Sanders (1967) reported similar findings from Oxford, the incidence of perforated peptic ulcers having fallen from 14 to 7/100,000 between 1957 and 1963, the decrease being due to duodenal and not gastric ulcers. The differing incidences in the city and country gave rise to much speculation-the superficial explanation that this was the outcome of increased stress of life in York, or that the labouring classes suffered more stress than the professional and semi-professional classes was unconvincing.…”

“…One of the simplest methods is the study of acute perforations, and several population sur-veys, in this country and Australia (Pulvertaft, 1959;Billington, 1960a, b) have shown that acute perforations represent some 11% of the chronic ulcer population; in a recent study Sanders (Sanders, 1967) has suggested that it is possible to use perforation incidence as an indication of total ulcer numbers.…”

“…Watkinson (1958), in a National Autopsy Survey, also noted a lower autopsy incidence in the South as compared to the North of England. Sanders (1967) reporting a low incidence in Oxford, suggested that these differences might be partly explained on ABO blood group distribution. He showed that the percentage of the population with blood group 0 was 53% in Glasgow and 51% in Aberdeen, compared to 47% in York and 44*5 % in Oxford.…”

Perforated duodenal ulcer in Reading from 1950 to 1959.

“…each year were too small to assess whether a similar decline was evident amongst them. The overall ratio was 1 to 12 of gastric ulcer to duodenal ulcer, which is higher than that found in a recent report from an adjacent area (Sanders, 1967), but markedly lower than that reported from other centres (Illingworth, Scott, and Jamieson, 1944); Weir, 1960).…”

Hospital admissions for peptic ulcer during 1958-72.

“…12 There is a tendency for the numbers of hospital discharges from all causes and the numbers of admissions for DU to be correlated (table III), but the size of the ulcer admission rate variation is much larger and perforated ulcer, an obligatory cause of admission, follows the same trend. Furthermore, the distribution of admissions for GU in the north and south is relatively even.…”