Onset of peptic ulcer and its relation to work-related factors and life events: A prospective study

Abstract

Although peptic ulcer (PU) is counted as one of the various work- related diseases, little is known about the risk factors other than health habits. The authors used data from the Japan Workers Stress and Health Survey - an 18-month follow-up study-to ascertain whether psychosocial factors play any role in the development of PU in the working population. The subjects were 9,204 men, working at various occupations and firms, aged 30 through 59 years, who had no prior history of PU at baseline. People with extremely severe life event stress had an increased risk of PU compared with those who had no such experience. An increased risk was found when the frequency of late night work was 10-12 times a month compared with none. Five items related to perceived work overload-too much responsibility, poor relations with superior, understaffing, excess of evening/holiday business meetings, and physically too tiring were each positively associated with PU. Life event stress, frequency of late night work, and perceived work overload were all independently associated with the onset of PU after controlling for age and smoking. These results provide evidence that psychosocial factors play an important role in the development of PU.