Prevalence of Helicobacter pylori infection among patients referred for endoscopy: Gender and ethnic differences in Kedah, Malaysia

ObjectiveTo study the prevalence of Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) infection, according to ethnicity and gender among the people of Sungai Petani, Kedah, Malaysia who undergo endoscopy.MethodsTo study the epidemiology of H. pylori infection in Kedah, Malaysia population, we assessed the database of hospital admissions of the patients referred to the Endoscopy Unit at Sungai Petani Hospital for oesophagogastro-duodenoscopy (OGD) between January 2000 and December 2007. For statistical analysis, the Fisher's exact test (2-tailed test) was used. H. pylori infection rate was determined in 1 965 consecutive patients.ResultsOut of 1 965 patients, 597 (30.4%) were positive and 1368 (69.6%) were negative for H. pylori infections. Generally, the prevalence rate among males (51.9% 398/767) was significantly higher (P<0.05) than for females (33.1%; 199/601). In terms of ethnics, the overall prevalence showed H. pylori infection was commonly found among Indians and Chinese with prevalence rate of 35.6% (194/545) and 28.6% (100/350) respectively. These figures are significantly higher (P< 0.05) than the 28.5% (300/1051) for Malays. The prevalence rates for Malay males was lower (P<0.05) than those of Chinese and Indians.ConclusionsIn conclusion, there is a significant difference in H. pylori infection prevalence rates among ethnic groups (highest in Indians, then Chinese and unusually low in Malays) and gender groups (highest in males) in Kedah, Malaysia.