Abstract
In order to inverstigate the clinical importance of sleep disturbance in the etiology of petic ulcer, the authors conducted a comparative study of the incidence of peptic ulcer among laborers who are now on the night-shift, previous shift-laborers and daytime laborers. Of the abnormal examinees found by mass x-ray examination of upper GI tract, the precise x-ray and endoscopic examinations were performed to establish the diagnosis of gastic or duodenal ulcer. The subjects (N=6397) of the present study all belonged to the institution where the authors conducted the second examinations. Of these subjects, gastric ulcer was found in 99,its scar in 67,duodenal ulcer in 71 and its scar in 66. The toltal namber of peptic ulcer thus diagnosed amounted to 303 cases. With the present time shift-laborers (N=1073), the incidence of gastic ulcer was 2.6% (N=28), and that of duodenal ulcer was 1.95% (N=21). In the previous shift-laborers (N=1011), the incidence of gastric ulcer was 1097% (N=20) and that of duodenal ulcer was 0.59% (N=6). To the contrary, in the daytime laborers (N=3564), the incidence of gastric ulcer was 1.29% (N=46%) and that of duodenal ulcer was 0.29% (N=33). The work-system of 749 examiness was unknown. Thus among shift-laborers, the incidence of gastric and duodenal ulcer was higher than that in daytime laborers. The statistical significaces were verfied by the chi spuare test (both p<0.01). This study showed that the shift-work, which was accompapained by sleep disturbance, played an role in the etiology of peptic ulcer.
