Peptic ulcer disease in Priest Hospital.

BACKGROUND Peptic ulcer disease (PUD) has been commonly diagnosed in priests. The reason may be their lifestyles and rules, where they have only two meals a day and they cannot select their food but must eat what is provided by the givers. OBJECTIVE To study the risk factors of PUD in the priests MATERIAL AND METHOD This study was a retrospective study of 266 priests who underwent gastroduodenoscopy at Department of Surgery, Priest Hospital between March 2004 and October 2006. The risk factors of Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) infection, non-steroid anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAID), smoking and years of ordination were collected, analyzed, and compared with other studies in general population. RESULTS The age range was 14-93 years with a mean age of 53.88 +/- 16.42 years. The study showed 60 cases (22.56%) of peptic ulcer (PU) with 39 cases (65%) of H. pylori infection, mainly found between 51-60 years old priests. Moreover there were 44 cases (73.33%) of gastric ulcer (GU) with 26 cases (59.10%) of H. pylori infection and 16 cases (26.67%) of duodenal ulcer (DU) with 13 cases (81.25%) of Hpylori infection. The age was the only significant risk factor affecting PUD in the priests. Lifestyle was not a significant risk factor as hypothesized in general population. CONCLUSION The only factor that related to the peptic ulcer in the priests is the age. The eating regulation does not affect the incidence of peptic ulcer. The lesser time being a priest or novice, the more prevalence of PU.