【Abstract】Objective To study the disease characteristics and influencing factors of quality of life in elderly patients with peptic ulcer (PU). Methods A total of 120 elderly PU patients in Beijing Royal Integrative Medicine Hospital from January to June 2021 were selected. Upon enrollment, various examinations were completed and clinical data were recorded in detail. The sleep quality of the patients was assessed by Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), the quality of life by MOS 36-item short-rorm health survey (SF-36), and the self-care ability by Exercise of Self-Care Agency Scale (ESCA). The clinical characteristics such as demographic characteristics, disease causes, onset seasons, clinical symptoms, special medication, and complications of the elderly PU patients were statistically analyzed. SPSS 23.0 was used for statistical analysis. Data comparison between two groups was performed using t test orχ2 test, depending on data type. Multivariate linear regression model was used to analyze the factors affecting the quality of life of the elderly PU patients. Results The elderly PU patients were mainly male (male∶female=1.67∶1), including 68 (56.67%) of gastric ulcer (GU) and 52 (43.33%) of duodenal ulcer (DU). The use of antipyretic or analgesic drugs (50.83%) was the main cause of PU in the elderly. In the elderly PU patients, the proportions of typical PU symptoms such as regular abdominal pain (17.50%) and regular abdominal distension (21.67%) were low, and the proportions of atypical symptoms such as melena (41.67%), fatigue (35.00%) and acid reflux (40.00%) were high. In terms of special medication history, the patients using non-steroidal drugs accounted for 23.33% (28/120), and those using anticoagulant drugs accounted for 33.33% (40/120). Among the elderly PU patients, 22.50% had peptic ulcer bleeding, 8.33% had ulcer perforation, and 5.83% had pyloric obstruction. By comparison, the proportions of patients with ulcer diameter > 2 cm, with multiple ulcers, and with intestinal metaplasia and atypical hyperplasia in the GU group were higher than those in the DU group, while the proportion of patients with Helicobacter pylori infection in the GU group was lower than that in the DU group, and the differences were statistically significant (P<0.05 for all). In addition, the scores of physical function, role physical, general health, vitality, mental health, and the total score on the SF-36 scale in the elderly PU patients were lower than those of the domestic norms, and the differences were statistically significant (P<0.05 for all). Multivariate linear regression analysis showed that sleep disorders (β=-0.274; P<0.001), PU-related complications (β=-0.343; P<0.001), and anxiety (β=-0.184, P<0.001) could negatively predict the quality of life of the elderly PU patients, while high level of self-care ability (β=0.313; P<0.001) could positively predict the quality of life, which together explained 31.50% of the variation of the patients′ quality of life. All 120 patients underwent endoscopic follow-up examination after treatment. Excluding those who were lost to follow-up, 14 (18.42%) of the remaining 76 patients relapsed and were readmitted during follow-up. Conclusion The proportion of the male PU patients is higher than that of the female patients; GU is more common; the clinical symptoms of patients are not typical; PU-related complications are more common, mainly peptic ulcer bleeding; the main cause of the disease is the use of antipyretic or analgesic drugs. In addition, the comorbidities are complex, the quality of life is significantly reduced, and the readmission rate is higher.
