The incidence of gastric ulcer in Copenhagen county

Abstract

A regional epidemiological investigation comprising one-tenth of the Danish population showed the annual incidence of new gastric ulcers during the period 1963-68 to be 0.44 per 1000 inhabitants aged 15 years and over. The corresponding incidence of solitary ulcers among former 'non-ulcer' patients was 0.31 per 1000. Similar incidence rates have been registered in comparable investigations from other Northern European countries within the last decades. The disease appears, however, to be relatively more frequent in Danish women than in women elsewhere, excluding in Australia. The annual incidence varied, but no indications of a systematic trend was registered. In solitary ulcers the ratio male: female was 1.1:1, while it was 2.2:1 in the cases in which a duodenal ulcer had been demonstrated, earlier or simultaneously with the gastric ulcer. The age incidence was identical for the two categories of patients. In both groups a considerable rise in the incidence was registered only in age groups above 40 years. In men the incidence was maximal for the 60-64 year age groups, while in women it increased with increasing age. The age-specific incidence rates of diagnostication as well as of symptomatic debut did not vary significantly according to the localization of the lesion.