Seroprevalance of helicobacter pylori in the centre of Bolu

H.pylori is the most common chronic infectious disease in the world. It has very important role in the etiology of some GI diseases such as gastritis, peptic ulcer, gastric adenocarcinoma, and MALT lymphoma. In 1994, WHO declared H.pylori to be the primary gastric carcinogen. In developing countries; its prevalence is % 80, while the ratio is % 30 in developed countries.Lower socioeconomic status, number of siblings, sharing the bed by siblings, using dirty water source, poor personal and environmental hygiene are the risk factors associated with this bacterial infection.There were no enough population based studies related to H.pylori in our country. Because of that; in this study, we aimed to find the prevalence of H.pylori in the centre of Bolu by H.pylori IgG antibody. 144 men and 166 women were included in the study. Participants were visited at their home and asked some questions about sociodemographic features. Blood samples were taken after the signed of informed consent.Mean age is 40.9 ± 13.5 years, mean height is 1.66±04 meter, mean BMI is 26.1±4.1kg/ m², % 75.8 of people are married, % 21 are single and % 3.2 are divorced. 102 people (% 32.9) were educated from primary school, 72 people (% 23.2) were graduated from university. Socioeconomic status is described by using education status and occupation. 114 people ( % 36.8) have low socioeconomic status, 97 people (% 31.3) have moderate and the rest (31.9) have high socioeconomic status. % 46.1 of people drink spring water. There are one-two people at home of % 19, three-four people in % 18.7 and five or higher people live in the family of % 18.7 of total.The prevalance of H.pylori in the centre of Bolu is % 73.9 according to results of the study. There is statistically higher prevalance among men than women. We did not find any association between H.pylori with age, education and socioeconomic status. However, there is significant correlation between H.pylori IgG seroprevalance and drinking of spring water. This result suggest that any contamination of spring water with sewage. Because of high prevalance of drinking spring water, how the spring water was transferred must be investigated.