Indochinese migrants to Australia appear to have a high prevalence of duodenal ulcer (DU). To examine this hypothesis a 2 year audit of the prevalence of symptomatic DU among patients attending a general hospital was conducted. The last 6 months of this period included a prospective assessment of ulcer risk factors. In Australian‐born patients DU prevalence was 8.4 per 1000 admissions. By comparison, prevalence in Indochinese was 24.6 per 1000 admissions (P < 0.001) with an age standardized prevalence of 30.3 per 1000 (P <0.001). This represented a relative risk in Indochinese of 2.9 using crude data and 3.6 after age standardization. The increased risk was demonstrated only in males: very few DU were diagnosed in female Indochinese. Ulcer prevalence increased in Indochinese for each age decile between 10 and 80 years, with statistical significance (P < 0.01) reached in the age brackets 0–19, 20–39 and 60–79 years. Ulcer prevalence was also increased in some other ethnic groups. However, when referral bias was taken into account (by calculating the ratio of endoscopies to total admissions for each group), a significant increase in DU prevalence could only be confidently demonstrated in Indochinese. Analysis of risk factors showed that among DU patients, Indochinese were significantly less likely to smoke (P < 0.05) and also had a tendency to ingest less non‐steroidal anti‐inflammatory drugs (NSAID) and to consume less alcohol. Copyright © 1993, Wiley Blackwell. All rights reserved

peptic ulcer geographic distribution Epidemiology

Chinese Alcohol Drinking Australia Prospective Studies human Aged alcoholism nonsteroid antiinflammatory agent Anti-Inflammatory Agents, Non-Steroidal Duodenal Ulcer duodenum ulcer smoking Adolescent male female Aged, 80 and over risk factor Risk Factors prevalence Article Retrospective Studies Support, Non-U.S. Gov't adult major clinical study Emigration and Immigration Asia, Southeastern Middle Age Child