Journal of North Khorasan

Background and Objectives: The patients with gastrointestinal symptoms comprised a large number of cases who referred to the general and interior clinics. It seems that the reaction of people to stressful events is more important than the stress in the generation of digestive diseases. The aim of this study was to determine the relationship between coping strategies and peptic ulcer.

Material & Methods: The present study was conducted with a cross-sectional and analytical design. Two hundred people (100 patients with peptic ulcer symptoms such as duodenal, gastric, and esophageal ulcer and endoscopic indication who were referred to the Imam Reza hospital in Bojnurd and confirmed for the peptic ulcer and 100 healthy subjects who had no history of peptic ulcer) were compared together. These people were selected using available sampling method. The measurement tools were included: Coping Strategies Scale (CSS) and socio-demographic checklist. Data were analyzed using the Mann-Whitney test and SPSS 20.

Results: There was a significant difference between people with peptic ulcer symptoms and healthy cases regarding to the coping strategies such as seeking social support (p < 0.01), reappraisal/adjustment (p < 0.01), avoidance coping (p < 0.01), problem-focused coping (p < 0.01), emotion-focused coping (p < 0.01), and confrontive-active coping (p < 0.05).

Conclusion: Emotional and negative coping strategies in stressful situations can act as a risk factor for the peptic ulcer. The people with peptic ulcer symptoms used more emotion-focused and negative coping strategies such as re-evaluation-adjustment, and avoidant coping in comparison with the healthy subjects.