Characterization of Patients with Peptic Ulcer Disease in Northeastern Nigeria: Influence of Lifestyle, Wealth, and Environmental Factors.
Abstract
Peptic ulcer disease is a disorder in the gastrointestinal tract. It is caused by an increase in stomach acid. There are only a few studies on peptic ulcer disease in Africa.
This study was conducted to characterize the lifestyle, wealth, and environmental factors of peptic ulcer patients in the Northeastern Nigeria. The lifestyle factors that were examined were cigarette smoking and alcohol consumption.
A targeted sampling method was used to sample 52 PUD (n=52) patients at Federal Medical Center, Yola. I used mixed methods (quantitative and qualitative techniques) approaches for data collection.
Structured questionnaires were administered to PUD patients, and questions on the lifestyle, wealth, and environmental factors of typical PUD patients were asked.
The result showed that cigarette smoking and alcohol consumption are not characteristics of typical PUD patients. More than 70% of the subjects stated they neither smoked cigarettes nor drank alcohol.
Introduction
Background Of Study
Peptic ulcer disease (PUD) is a gastrointestinal disorder that occurs as a result of developing a hole or sore within the lining of stomach, or duodenum, which forms the first part of the ileum (small intestine) (Lin et al., 2015).
This is caused by high increase in the gastric acid found in the stomach.
PUD poses a serious medical problem to humans, and it affects millions of people in their everyday lives. It increases the morbidity and mortality rates throughout the world’s population (Siddique, 2014).
For example, approximately 4 million people have peptic ulcer disease in the United States, and about 350,000 new cases of PUD are diagnosed each year (Siddique, 2014).
Peptic ulcer disease has been identified as the most common disorder of the gastrointestinal tract.
The incidence of this disease is constantly increasing in developing countries, while it has decreased in developed countries (Al-Zubeer et al., 2012).
PUD has continued to be a serious socio-medical challenge in the world (Konturek et al., 2003). The reasons behind the decrease of peptic ulcer incidence in developed countries have been attributed to the early detection and treatment of the disease (Al-Zubeer et al., 2012).
Other factors that have led to the decline in the PUD in developed countries include increase in hygiene and sanitation in the food services sector; as well as increase in health awareness in developed countries.
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