Journal Article

Epidemiology of Helicobacter pylori infection in six Latin American countries (SWOG Trial S0701)

Porras, Carolina, Nodora, Jesse, Dominguez, Ricardo L., Sexton, Rachael, Herrero, Rolando, Ferreccio, Catterina, Morgan, Douglas R., Anderson, Garnet, Cook, Paz, Baker, Laurence H., Greenberg, E. Robert, Jimenez, Silvia

2013

Overview

Objective: To investigate the potential determinants of Helicobacter pylori infection between adults 21–65 years old. Methods: Data are from the initial screening visit of a randomized clinical trial of three antibiotic regimens to eradicate H. pylori, conducted in seven sites (Santiago—Chile, Túquerres—Colombia, Guanacaste—Costa Rica, Copán—Honduras, Obregón and Tapachula—México, León—Nicaragua). Thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine adults from the general population were screened for H. pylori infection using an urea breath test (UBT) and were interviewed to assess socioeconomic-, demographic-, and symptom-related characteristics. Logistic regression was used to assess the relationship between these characteristics and H. pylori positivity at enrollment. Results: Among the 1,852 eligible participants for whom a conclusive UBT result was obtained, H. pylori prevalence was 79.4 %, ranging from 70.1 to 84.7 % among the seven centers. Prevalence did not differ by sex (female: 78.4, male: 80.9; p = 0.20) or age (p = 0.08). H. pylori positivity increased with increasing number of siblings (p trend <0.0001). Participants with education beyond 12 years were less likely to be UBT-positive (OR 0.4: 0.3–0.6, compared to participants with 0–6 years of schooling) as were those employed outside the home (OR 0.7: 0.6–1.0). Odds of H. pylori infection increased with the presence of certain living conditions during childhood including having lived in a household with an earth floor (OR 1.8:1.4–2.4), lack of indoor plumbing (OR 1.3: 1.0–1.8) and crowding (OR 1.4: 1.0–1.8, for having more than two persons per bedroom). Regarding current household conditions, living with more than 3 children in the household (OR 1.7: 1.2–2.5) and crowding (OR 1.8: 1.3–2.3) were associated with H. pylori infection. Conclusions: The prevalence of H. pylori in adults was high and differed significantly among the six Latin American countries studied (p < 0.001). Our findings confirm the strong link between poor socioeconomic conditions and H. pylori infection.

• Publisher: Springer,Springer Netherlands,Springer Nature B.V
• Subject: Adult / Age / Aged / Antibiotics / Biomedical and Life Sciences / Biomedicine / Breath tests / Cancer Research / Childhood / Children / Clinical trials / Clinical Trials, Phase III as Topic / COMMENTARY / Disease transmission / Epidemiology / Female / Helicobacter Infections - diagnosis / Helicobacter Infections - epidemiology / Helicobacter pylori / Helicobacter pylori - isolation & purification / Hematology / Housing conditions / Humans / Infections / Latin America - epidemiology / Living conditions / Male / Medical research / Middle Aged / Multicenter Studies as Topic / Oncology / Original Paper / Primary care / Public Health / Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic / Risk Factors / Rural areas / Siblings / Socioeconomic factors / Study centers / Young Adult