Is there a link between the variation in gastric cancer mortality and differences in Helicobacter pylori prevalence in different regions of France?

An ecological study was performed to correlate the cumulative gastric cance r mortality rate to the prevalence of Helicobacter pylori infection in Fran ce. National data on mortality, standardized for age and gender and the res ults of a nationwide prevalence study on Helicobacter pylori infection amon g 1,586 patients consulting for symptoms other than upper digestive tract s ymptoms, in seven defined French regions were used. The correlation was des cribed by linear regression with the standardized data and then evaluated i n a linear regression model including age and gender as co-variables. The Southwest region was the least affected by the infection (15.2%) while prevalence varied from 20.5 to 25.3% for the other regions. The cumulative gastric cancer mortality rate varied from 34.4 to 51.8/100,000. The prevale nce of Helicobacter pylori infection irt the model explained 5% of the vari ability in the gastric cancer mortality. A number of biases which were diff icult to control could explain the lack of association between these variab les.