SOCIAL AND GEOGRAPHICAL RISK-FACTORS IN HELICOBACTER-PYLORI INFECTION

A correlation between childhood crowding and the later development of gastric cancer has been demonstrated by Barker and colleagues, who pro posed that the relationship was the consequence of infection by an org anism such as Helicobacter pylori. In order to test this hypothesis th e presence of IgG antibodies to H. pylori in sera from blood donors in North Wales has been investigated. During donation sessions, donors a nswered questions relating to social conditions and domicile in childh ood (at age 10 years) and adult life (the preceding 2 years). A stepwi se logistic regression analysis of the data demonstrated significant i ndependent relationships between seropositivity and the following fact ors: sharing a bed in childhood, housing density, locality of birth, a dult social class and age.