Prevalence of gastric and duodenal ulcers at endoscopy in Nigerian and British patients

Abstract

We compared endoscopic findings in 243 Nigerian and 1867 British patients undergoing endoscopy for similar indications. The Nigerian patients were much younger, 46.5% of them being less than 35 years old whereas the British patients were older, with only 36.2% being less than 35 years old (P-0.001). Duodenal ulcers were commoner in the Nigerian patients (P-0.03) and gastric ulcers were also commoner in the Nigerian patients who were less than 35 years old (P-0.01). There was no difference in the prevalence of gastric nor oesophageal carcinoma in the two groups.