N. Broutet et al., Is there a link between the variation in gastric cancer mortality and differences in Helicobacter pylori prevalence in different regions of France?, GASTRO CL B, 23(6-7), 1999, pp. 754-760
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.