Risk factors for acquiring Helicobacter pylori infection in a group of Tuscan teenagers

Risk factors for acquiring Helicobacter pylori infection include hygienic, social, and environmental conditions. Some of these conditions usually chan ge over time. We therefore investigated the existence of risk factors in a group of teenagers living in a place with the same environmental characteri stics, in which hygienic and crowding conditions have not changed significa ntly in the last 20 years. A group of 164 students, mostly borne in 1977, attending four different sch ools. were examined serologically for H. pylori infection and CagA status. The importance of the risk factors for the transmission of the infection we re evaluated by the chi (2) test. P values <0.05 were considered significan t. Twenty-two students (13.4%) were H. pylori seropositive. Students attending teachers college and high school of arts were infected significantly more often than those attending high school (P = 0.011 and P = 0.012, respective ly). Students who smoked and students whose parents had a manual job had an increased risk of acquiring the infection (P = 0.002. and P = 0.036. respe ctively). Crowding conditions and the presence of domestic animals were clo se to being statistically significant. Other factors, such as gender, numbe r of bathrooms and bedrooms, sharing the bed with adults as a child, presen ce of a sexual partner, and a family history of peptic ulcer and gastric ca ncer, did not increase the risk of infection. The prevalence of seropositiv ity for CagA was similar in the various risk groups. Manual job of parents and smoking were the most important factors for acqui ring H. pylori infection.