Prevalence and Association of Helicobacter pylori in Downtown Brooklynʼs Minority Population

Abstract

Purpose:Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) infection is a pandemic disease; about 70% of the developing world population and 40% of the U.S. population harbor this bacteria as per the CDC. H. pylori has been implicated in the development of peptic ulcer disease and less frequently, gastric malignancy, namely adenocarcinoma and lymphoma of the gastric-mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue. Due to the serious consequences of this common infection and the lack of studies addressing H. pylori prevalence among minority patients, we aimed to investigate the prevalence of this infection in a downtown Brooklyn population. One of the most diverse urban populations in the country. Methods: Charts of all adult patients who underwent upper endoscopy with biopsy at our medical center in two years period were reviewed. Data about demographics, endoscopic, and histological findings were collected and analyzed. The presence of H. pylori infection was based on the immunohistopathological analysis of the biopsy samples. SAS software was used for statistical analysis. Results: Our cohort included 970 patients (37% males and 63% females). African Americans and Hispanics represented 52.5% and 28.3% of the study population, respectively. The prevalence of H. pylori was 24.64%. There was no association found between H. pylori prevalence and age, race, or sex (P 0.16, P 0.52, and P 0.87, respectively). Peptic ulcer disease was found in 11.5 % of our cohort which was significantly associated with H. pylori (16.3% vs 9.9% in non-infected patients, P 0.007). Gastric intestinal metaplasia (in 11.6% of the patients) was also associated with H. pylori infection (18.4% vs 9.4% in non-infected patients, P 0.0002). Conclusion:H. pylori prevalence among the downtown Brooklyn population is lower than the national average reported by CDC and even lower than any North American population reported in the literature. The environmental, bacteriological and host factors behind these findings need to be evaluated.