Prevalence and Risk Factors for Helicobacter Pylori Infection among Healthy Inhabitants in Northern Jakarta, Indonesia

Abstract

<br /> <strong><span style="font-size: small;">Background: </span></strong><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times New Roman; font-size: small;">The prevalence of </span></span><em><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times New Roman; font-size: small;">Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori</span></span></em><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times New Roman; font-size: small;">) infection in Indonesia has been reported to be </span></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times New Roman; font-size: small;">exceedingly low. The purpose of our study was to confirm whether this is the case in Northern Jakarta using a sensitive </span></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times New Roman; font-size: small;">13C-urea breath test (UBT), and to examine any associations with lifestyle/environment factors and potential routes of transmission. </span></span><strong><span style="font-size: small;">Methods: </span></strong><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times New Roman; font-size: small;">We recruited a total of 196 subjects from a low-income community in Northern Jakarta, </span></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times New Roman; font-size: small;">Indonesia, data from 193 who completed a questionnaire about their lifestyle/environment and had UBT being included </span></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times New Roman; font-size: small;">as the final. Odds ratios (ORs) adjusted for sex and age with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated using a </span></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times New Roman; font-size: small;">logistic regression model. </span></span><strong><span style="font-size: small;">Results: </span></strong><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times New Roman; font-size: small;">The overall </span></span><em><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times New Roman; font-size: small;">H. pylori </span></span></em><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times New Roman; font-size: small;">infection rate was 15.0% (95%CI, 10.3-20.9), with variation among Javanese (9.1%, total=77), Buginese (40.0%, 35), Betawi (9.1%, 33), Sundanese (3.7%, 27), and Batak (40.0%, 5). On multivariate analysis, the ORs for intake of soybean milk, cucumber more than once a week, infrequent hand washing practice before meals, and alcohol consumption were 0.10 (95%CI: 0.01-0.97), 6.61 (95%CI: 1.87-23.3), 4.10 (95%CI: 1.15-14.6), and 61.9 (95%CI: 1.67-2300.8), respectively. Rates for Buginese (OR=7.84; 95%CI: 1.82-33.8) and Batak (OR=20.1; 95%CI: 1.90-213.2) were significantly higher than for Javanese. </span></span><strong><span style="font-size: small;">Conclusions: </span></strong><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times New Roman; font-size: small;">The </span></span><em><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times New Roman; font-size: small;">H. pylori </span></span></em><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times New Roman; font-size: small;">infection rate in this study was relatively low, in line with previous studies. Regarding ethnicity factors, Buginese and Batak reported eating food using fingers more frequently than Javanese, Betawi, and Sundanese. Our study indicated </span></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times New Roman; font-size: small;">that person-person transmission is possible in this low prevalence area. The low infection rates for </span></span><em><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times New Roman; font-size: small;">H. pylori </span></span></em><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times New Roman; font-size: small;">among Javanese, Betawi, and Sundanese ethnics could be partly due to their sanitary practices. </span></span>