Rebecca Nekaka, Paul Oboth, Julius Nteziyaremye, Yahaya Gavamukulya, Lydia VN Ssenyonga and Jacob Stanley Iramiot
Background: Globally, 50% or more of the world’s population is infected with Helicobacter pylori making it the most widely spread bacteria across the world. The low developed countries are more overburdened by Helicobacter pylori infection than the developed countries. H. pylori infection is associated with duodenal ulcer, chronic atrophic gastritis (CAG), lymphomas, and adenocarcinoma. This study reports the prevalence of H. pylori and its associated factors in Eastern Uganda.
Materials and methods: A cross-sectional study involving 275 participants was carried out in eastern Uganda. H. pylori serology was done and face to face interviewer-administered questionnaire were used for data collection. Data were entered in Microsoft Excel and imported to Stata version 14 for analysis and a P value of <0.05 was considered statistically significant.
Results: The seroprevalence of H. pylori was 27.3% (75/275) with 28.4% (50/176) of the females being positive compared to25.3% (25/99) of the males. Consumption of animal products (meat, milk, and eggs) was the only statistically significant factor associated with H. pylori seropositivity (P ˂0.001, 95% CI =1.934-4.209, AOR=2.85).
Conclusion: The H. pylori seroprevalence is high in eastern Uganda. Consumption of animal products was a positive predictor of infectivity.