The risk factors and clinical findings in pediatric helicobacter pylori Infection

Abstract

Objective:Helicobacter pylori infection is one of the most common chronic infections in the world. In developing countries, new infections more commonly occur in childhood and lasts for life unless treated. H pylori infection is more prevalent in low socioeconomic conditions. The infection may remain asymptomatic or it may cause gastrointestinal and extra intestinal symptoms. The aim of this study is to determine the prevalence, associated risk factors and symptoms of H.pylori infection in healthy school children. Methods: The study included randomly selected 489 students aged 6-16 years, from five colleges in Bursa city. Informed consent was taken from the parents and they were asked to fill out the questionnaire forms about their socioeconomical conditions and child’s symptoms. School visits were organized for anthropometric measurements of each student and to collect blood samples for testing H.pylori IgG. The children were grouped according to H pylori seropositivity and groups were compared according to socioeconomical and clinical characteristics. Results: This study group included 251 girls (48.7%) and 248 boys (51.3%), the mean age was 9.9±2.3 years. Forty-four percent of the children were H. pylori seropositive, of whom 52.1% were girls and 36.3% were boys (p=0.0001). Paternal education was an independent risk factor for H.pylori infection and was inversely correlated with seropositivity(p=0.005). The body weight and height were significantly lower in seropositives in comparison to negative ones ((p=0.012 and p=0.03, respectively). The analysis according to age groups revealed that seropositivity was associated with low weight in children younger than the age of 10 years (p=0.03), and with short stature (p=0.04) in the older group. Conclusion: The H. pylori seropositivity of school children in Bursa city was consistent with Turkey data. Our results showed that both body weight and height of school children were negatively affected by H.pylori infection. While weight is affected primarily in younger ages, height was impaired in older ones. In conclusion, H. pylori infection is generally asymptomatic in childhood but it should be kept on mind that it has unfavorable consequences on child’s growth.