Zeitschrift für Bioingenieurwesen und biomedizinische Wissenschaft

Risk Factors Associated with Peptic Ulcer Disease

Abstract

Kadhim G, Omar H, Ismail A

Background: Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) infection is usually acquired in early childhood. H. pylori infection is associated with several upper gastrointestinal disorders. Since H. pylori affects about 50% of the population in their lifetime therefore there is a necessity to examine the extent of the disease and to study the risk factors associated with H. pylori infection. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the rate of H. pylori infection among the target population.

Methods: This study included one hundred seventy eight randomly selected participants by interview and questionnaire. The independent variables included in the questionnaire were: age, sex, weight, marital status, smoking, drink tea, drink coffee, type of drinking water during childhood and adulthood (filtered, unfiltered water). HpSAg test were used to detect antigen in stool specimen.

Results: In crude analysis, the infection risk was associated with type of drinking water during childhood with P value=0.018. Tea drinking seemed to be a protective factor against H. pylori infection.

Conclusions: The independent variables were considered as risk factors with peptic ulcer disease. H. pylori infection appears to be multifactorial. The results of this work supported the hypothesis that H. pylori acquisition occurs early in childhood and persist throughout life.