[Epidemiology of duodenal ulcer (author's transl)]

The epidemiology of peptic ulcer was investigated in 1105 endoscopy patients in a Zurich city hospital and in a random nongastroenterological hospital population. A raised susceptibility for duodenal ulcer was found in young, mainly unskilled, foreign labourers. There was no raised susceptibility in female foreign workers who also suffered less often from gastric ulcer than Swiss women. A tendency to ulceration in certain other diseases previously incriminated and in alcohol and nicotine consumers was not observed. A connection between susceptibility to ulceration and migration is assumed.