Parental history of gastric or duodenal ulcer and prevalence of Helicobacter pylori infection in preschool children: population based study

Helicobacter pylori infection is present in almost all patients with duodenal ulcers and 80-90% of patients with gastric ulcers,1 whereas the prevalence of infection among young adults without a history of ulcer is fairly low in Western countries.2 To investigate the importance of transmission from parent to child we assessed the relation between a parent's history of gastric or duodenal ulcer and infection with H pylori in his or her offspring in a large population of preschool children. A cross sectional study was carried out among 1201 preschool children living in Ulm, a city of about 100 000 inhabitants located in southern Germany. The children had a medical examination before starting school in 1996. Details of the study design are reported elsewhere.3 In brief, a urea breath test using carbon-13 was …