Prevalence and factors associated with Helicobacter pylori infection among treatment naïve dyspeptic adults in University of Benin Teaching Hospital, Benin City, Nigeria

Background: Infectious diseases such as malaria, HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis have received tremendous attention globally but inspite of the widespread nature of infections caused by Helicobacter pylori, little attention has been paid to it especially in the developing countries. The objective of this study was to determine the prevalence of and factors associated with H. pylori infection among dyspeptic patients attending the University of Benin Teaching Hospital, Benin City, Nigeria. Methodology: This was a hospital based descriptive cross-sectional study of 354 treatment naive dyspeptic patients aged 18 to 44 years, recruited consecutively after obtaining institutional ethical approval and subjects’ informed consent. A pre-tested interviewer administered questionnaire was used to obtain subjects’ data. The stool antigen test was used to detect H. pylori infection. Results: The prevalence of H. pylori infection among the subject participants was 34.2% (38.4% in female, 24.0% in male, p=0.009). The age group < 20 years had the highest prevalence of 40%. Gender, occupation, increased body mass index, high number of household occupants, and rural dwelling, were significantly associated with H. pylori infection (p<0.05) and alcohol intake was inversely related to H. pylori infection (p<0.05). Conclusion: The prevalence of H. pylori infection in University of Benin Teaching Hospital is high and factors such as gender, obesity, occupation with risk of contact, low socio-economic status, and poor hygiene, may be responsible for this.Keywords: Dyspepsia, Helicobacter pylori, infection, stool antigen tes