Abstract

In Central Europe and in South Africa duodenal ulcer disease has been reported to occur twice as often in migrant workers as in the indigenous population. To investigate the reasons for this phenomenon the joint effect of occupation and nationality on the prevalence of gastric and duodenal ulcer was studied in a survey of 73,000 active members of the German workforce. Non-ulcer dyspepsia and gastric, but not duodenal, ulcer were found more frequently in migrant than in indigenous workers. Manual workers were more prone to develop gastric and duodenal ulcer and non-ulcer dyspepsia than sedentary workers. The seemingly increased prevalence of duodenal ulcer in migrant workers observed by other authors may be due to migrant workers being employed predominantly in manual labour which bears a twofold risk of developing duodenal ulcer.