Helicobacter pylori prevalence in Leipzig's 1998 school entries: methodology and first results

The non-invasive, stable-isotope-aided Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) test s - breath and equivalent urine tests - were offered on a voluntary basis a s part of the mandatory school entry medical examination to the 1998 school entry cohort of the City of Leipzig (480 000 residents). Parents of partic ipating subjects were asked to fill out a detailed epidemiologic questionna ire. The response rate was 94% (n=2228 of 2369 school starters born in 1991/92). Parent-completed questionnaires were returned by 1890 (80%) children. The overall H. pylori positive prevalence was 7.2 %. The prevalence among child ren with a test and a parent-completed questionnaire was 6.5 %. Prevalences among subsequently tested family members of the positive tested children w as 65, 60 and 39 % for mothers, fathers and siblings respectively. Though s tudies have shown that the direct transmission of the bacterium (oral - ora l and fecal - oral) is a dominant pathway of infection, the questionnaire a nalyses indicate associations between H. pylori colonisation and living as well as environmental conditions.