An epidemiologic study of Helicobacter pylori infection in three areas with high, moderate or low incidences of gastric carcinoma

Table 1 Helicobacter pylori infection rates of subjects from areas with low, moderate, and high incidence rates of gastric cancer

Age (yr)	Low (Conghua County)		Moderate (Huaiyuan County)		High (Changle County)
	n	Positive rate (%)	n	Positive rate (%)	n	Positive rate (%)
1-4	13	15.4	14	35.7	14	50.0
5-9	43	30.2	17	41.2	42	54.8
10-19	32	37.5	23	43.5	32	53.1
20-29	27	33.3	66	63.6	44	72.7
30-39	30	33.3	34	64.7	40	67.5
40-49	23	43.5	28	53.6	19	47.4
50 +	29	41.4	31	58.7	38	55.3
Total	197	34.5	213	55.9a	229	59.4a

χ² = 25.029,

^aP < 0.05, compared with the area of low incidence rate (Conghua County)

Table 2 Anti-Helicobacter pylori IgG levels in subjects from areas with low, moderate, and high incidence rates of gastric cancer

	n	(S/N)
Low (Conghua County)	197	1.84 ± 0.46b
Moderate (Huaiyuan County)	213	2.04 ± 0.47b
High (Changle County)	229	2.30 ± 0.49

^bP < 0.01, compared with the area of high incidence rate (Changle County)

Table 3 Multivariate regression analysis of Helicobacter pylori related variables

N (Xi)	Variable	r	F	P value
X3	Drinking natural water	0.052	4.34	0.038
X11	Eating red pepper	0.079	8.57	0.003
X18	Poor dietary habits	-0.110	11.98	0.001
X25	Frequent use of antibiotics	-0.110	12.79	0.000
X39	Low income	0.087	21.14	0.000
X51	Mental depression	-0.108	4.23	0.040

Table 4 Univariate analysis of Helicobacter pylori related factors

N (Xi)	Variable	x2M-H	P value
X11	Eating red pepper	10.53	0.001
X25	Frequent use of antibiotics	6.39	0.011
X29	Raising animals in the home	3.86	0.049
X32	Abdominal symptoms	5.82	0.016
X39	Low income	9.99	0.002
X51	Mental depression	5.26	0.022