Background: The hypothesis that non-secretor status of individuals makes them more susceptible to certain bacterial infections and they might be at a greater risk of metabolic syndromes and autoimmune diseases motivated us to evaluate the relationship between secretor status and risk factors for duodenal ulcer in the present study.

Materials and Methods: This case-control study was done on 120 patients with duodenal ulcer, gastric ulcer, and gastric cancer undergoing endoscopy, and a control group including 120 healthy individuals. Secretor status was determined by saliva and the association of some risk factors with the prevalence of disease was determined by a questionnaire. The results were analyzed by SPSS software version 16.

Results: Overall, 27.5% of the patients were non-secretor and 72.5% were secretor, whereas 20.8 % of the controls were non-secretor and 79.2% were secretor. There was not a significant relationship between secretor status and the incidence of gastrointestinal diseases. However, some risk factors, such as gender, smoking, and physical activity, were significantly associated with gastric disease.

Conclusion: The statistical analysis showed that there was not a significant association between secretor status and prevalence of gastric disease. According to the results, gastrointestinal diseases are more common in men than women and in smokers more than nonsmokers. Furthermore, physical activities reduce the incidence of this disease.