Hospital admissions for peptic ulcer during 1958-72

Unpublished data from the Hospital In-patient Enquiry in England, Wales, and Scotland between 1958 and 1972 show that the frequency of admissions to hospital for peptic ulcer, particularly gastric ulcer, has fallen. This seems more likely to have been due to a true fall in the incidence of ulcer than to changes in treatment. Some three times as many people are admitted to hospital with duodenal ulcer in the north as in the south, but the frequency of admissions for gastric ulcer seems to vary little. The reasons for these differences are not understood.