Özet:

We aimed to evaluate the relationship between the prevalence of Helicobacter pylori (HP) and epidemiologic, socio-economic, demographic variables of the patients admitted for C14 urea breath test.METHODS: Patients (n=2189) admitted for C14 urea breath test were evaluated. Patients (n=589) with equivocal test results (cpm: 25-50) or history of previous HP therapy for HP eradication were excluded, thus 1600 patients were included. The characteristics including age, gender, marital status, body mass index, blood group, smoking, presence of chronic systemic diseases, the type of fuel used for heatingand their relation with HP positiveness were analyzed.RESULTS: The study included 1130 (70.6%) female and 470 (29.4 %) male patients with a mean age of 37.66±20.35 years. HP prevalence was 49.5 % in whole study opulation. In the evaluation of age groups, statistical signifi cance was found between the pediatric and other age groups (p0.05). The education level was also correlated with the positiveness of the test results. Participants using coal and gas, as the primary fuel for their heating system, had HP tests positiveness of 55.5 and 46.8%, respectively.CONCLUSİON: Helicobacter Pylori infection rate increases with age and the presence of an additional gastrointestinal disease. In addition, its prevalence is higher if coal is used as the primary fuel for heating instead of gas.

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