Abstract
BackgroundMany public health problems in modern society affect the gastrointestinal area. Knowledge of the disease occurrence in populations is better understood if viewed in a psychosocial context including indicators of the social environment where people spend their lives. The general aim of this study was to estimate the occurrence in the population and between sexes of common gastrointestinal conditions in two neighborhood cities representing two different social environments defined as a "white-collar" and a "blue-collar" city.MethodsWe conducted a retrospective register study using data of diagnosed gastrointestinal disorders (cumulative incidence rates) derived from an administrative health care register based on medical records assigned by the physicians at hospitals and primary care.ResultsFunctional gastrointestinal diseases and peptic ulcers were more frequent in the white-collar city, while diagnoses in the gallbladder area were significantly more frequent in the blue-collar city. Functional dyspepsia, irritable bowel syndrome, and unspecified functional bowel diseases, and celiac disease, were more frequent among women while esophageal reflux, peptic ulcers, gastric and rectal cancers were more frequent among men regardless of social environment.ConclusionsKnowledge of the occurrence of gastrointestinal problems in populations is better understood if viewed in a context were the social environment is included. Indicators of the social environment should therefore also be considered in future studies of the occurrence of gastrointestinal problems.
Highlights
Many public health problems in modern society affect the gastrointestinal area
This trend was seen for irritable bowel syndrome (IBS)-C, Relative Rates (RR) = 2.55 and Irritable bowel syndrome-diarrhoea (IBS-D), RR = 2.61 except for the lowest age group, where men tend to have more IBS diagnoses
For unspecified functional gastrointestinal diseases (FGD), more diagnoses were seen among women RR = 1.37
Summary
Many public health problems in modern society affect the gastrointestinal area. Knowledge of the disease occurrence in populations is better understood if viewed in a psychosocial context including indicators of the social environment where people spend their lives. The dysfunctions that lead to or aggravate FGD are a combination of biological, psychological and psychosocial factors [3]. These multiple sets of factors are likely to interact in the pathogenesis and clinical. Knowledge of the disease prevalence rates is crucial for describing the population burden of diseases and assessing the associated health care utilization and health care cost [7]. Available sources for this purpose include health surveys, screening investigations, and register studies [8]. The General Practice Research Database (GPRD) in United Kingdom (UK) had been used in different studies of several diseases such as GERD and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease [11,12] as well as detection of colorectal tumor and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) among patients with IBS [13,14]
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