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Prevalence of Helicobacter pylori Infection Worldwide: A Systematic Review of Studies with National Coverage

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An Erratum to this article was published on 10 July 2015

Abstract

The systematic assessment of large population-based surveys addressing the prevalence of Helicobacter pylori infection may provide robust evidence for understanding the trends in the exposure to this major risk factor across settings with distinct patterns of gastric cancer variation. Our aim was to describe the prevalence of H. pylori infection in different countries and periods, through systematic review of the literature. We searched PubMed from inception up to September 2013 to identify original studies reporting on the prevalence of H. pylori, and only those evaluating samples with national coverage were included. We identified 37 eligible studies including data for 22 countries. The prevalences were higher in Central/South America and Asia, and at least two-fold higher in countries with high gastric cancer incidence. In most countries presenting data for different time periods, the prevalences were usually lower in the most recent surveys. However, there was little variation in settings where prevalences were already low. Among countries with high prevalence of H. pylori infection there is an ample scope for reducing its burden in the next decades, whereas further declines in settings with already low prevalences will require more intensive efforts.

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Acknowledgments

The authors gratefully acknowledge the collaboration of Bruno Barroso and Helena Carreira for the participation in the screening of reference lists and data extraction. This work was supported by “Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia” (PTDC/SAU-EPI/122460/2010 and SFRH/BPD/75918/2011).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Clinical Epidemiology, Predictive Medicine and Public Health, University of Porto Medical School, Al. Prof. Hernâni Monteiro, 4200-319, Porto, Portugal

    Bárbara Peleteiro & Nuno Lunet

  2. Institute of Public Health of the University of Porto (ISPUP), Porto, Portugal

    Bárbara Peleteiro, Ana Bastos, Ana Ferro & Nuno Lunet

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  1. Bárbara Peleteiro
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  2. Ana Bastos
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Correspondence to Bárbara Peleteiro.

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Peleteiro, B., Bastos, A., Ferro, A. et al. Prevalence of Helicobacter pylori Infection Worldwide: A Systematic Review of Studies with National Coverage. Dig Dis Sci 59, 1698–1709 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10620-014-3063-0

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