Cent Eur J Public Health 2011, 19(1):42-45 | DOI: 10.21101/cejph.a3643

Influence of Sociodemographic Factors on Helicobacter pylori Prevalence Variability among Schoolchildren in Leipzig, Germany. A Long-Term Follow-up Study

Sophie Bauer1, Peter Krumbiegel2, Matthias Richter2, Thomas Richter3, Stefan Röder2, Ulrike Rolle-Kampczyk2, Olf Herbarth1
1 Institute of Environmental Medicine and Hygiene, Faculty of Medicine, University of Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany
2 Department of Human Exposure Research and Epidemiology, (UFZ) Leipzig-Halle, Leipzig, Germany
3 Municipal Children's Hospital "St. Georg", Leipzig, Germany

Background: Until the beginning of this decade the assumption was that the Helicobacter pylori prevalence increases with the age of the population under consideration. More and more epidemiological studies have been suggestive of constancy in Helicobacter pylori prevalence, but to date there has been no long-term follow-up study in a large group of children confirming this hypothesis.

Methods: Following up our study of H. pylori among school starters and 2nd graders in 1998 and 2000, we conducted a third phase of this study in 2006 using the [13C]-Urea Breath Test and a detailed parent-completed epidemiological questionnaire to evaluate the development of prevalence among the overall population of 8th graders in the city of Leipzig (n=1,905), and especially of the subgroup of participants who took part in all three study phases (n=751).

Results: The overall H. pylori prevalence was 6.5% and had not significantly changed since 1998 and 2000 (6.1%, 5.7% respectively). However, we noticed a significant lower prevalence in the subgroup that participated in all study phases (2.7%). Moreover, we observed a dependence of prevalence on distribution of sociodemographic risk factors such as foreign nationality of at least one parent, birth outside of Germany, low parental education and unemployment, and ≥2 older siblings.

Conclusion: The variability in prevalence is most likely a result of unequal sociodemographic family backgrounds.

Keywords: helicobacter pylori, bacterial disease, child health, childhood infections, environmental health, social factors

Received: September 23, 2010; Revised: December 7, 2010; Accepted: December 7, 2010; Published: March 1, 2011  Show citation

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Bauer S, Krumbiegel P, Richter M, Richter T, Röder S, Rolle-Kampczyk U, Herbarth O. Influence of Sociodemographic Factors on Helicobacter pylori Prevalence Variability among Schoolchildren in Leipzig, Germany. A Long-Term Follow-up Study. Cent Eur J Public Health. 2011;19(1):42-45. doi: 10.21101/cejph.a3643. PubMed PMID: 21526656.
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