Prevalence

• patients on NSAIDs ^a
• patients on intensive care units ^b
• elderly patients ^b

• Around one in a thousand patients recently started on NSAIDs have a GI haemorrhage or perforation (0.11%: 95% CI: 0.094% to 0.13%) ^a
• One in twelve patients on intensive care units for longer than 2 days have an upper GI bleed (8.7%: 95% CI: 6.8% to 11%) ^b

Old age increases the risk for a bleeding peptic ulcer

Patient	Prognostic Factor	Outcome	CER	OR (95% CI)	NNF+ (95% CI)
well b	aged >75 independent	bleeding peptic ulcer at 19 months	0.13%	5.1 (3.3 to 7.8)	190 (110 to 330)

• A suspected upper GI bleed is proved correct in a third of in-patients (39%: 95% CI: 27% to 51%) ^c