Prevalence of Helicobacter Pylori Infection in Patients with Chronic Dyspeptic Symptoms at Rawal General and Dental Hospital, Islamabad

Background: Helicobacter Pylori infection is the most common cause of chronic dyspeptic symptoms all over the world and covers more than 60% of the out-patient department’s (OPD) registry. That is why we aimed to conduct this study to determine the prevalence of helicobacter pylori infection in patients with chronic dyspeptic symptoms visiting at our out-patient department (OPD) of Rawal General and Dental Hospital.

Methods: This was a descriptive cross-sectional hospital based study conducted in the Department of Gastroenterology, Rawal General and Dental Hospital, Islamabad between the periods of two years June 2018 – June 2020 with in patients who presented with a chief complain of dyspepsia through a consecutive sampling technique. Baseline and clinical variables were collected and correlated with the presence and absence of H. pylori infection among 355 finally recruited participants.

Results: The overall prevalence of H. pylori infection was 59.71% (n = 212). Among them, married males were more common. Positive H. pylori patients were younger than negative H. pylori patients, 40.24±6.62 vs. 44.9±8.05 (p 0.04). Participants who had a history of NSAIDS intake for past 7 days were significantly associated with positive H. pylori infection, 54.24% (n = 115), p 0.02. While on the other hands, patients who were receiving proton pump inhibitor for the past 4 weeks were significantly associated with absence of H. pylori infection when they presented with chronic dyspeptic symptoms, 65.03% (n = 93), p 0.01.

Conclusions: Our study has found that almost two third of the population suffering from chronic dyspeptic symptoms had positive H. pylori infection and these patients are younger than H. pylori negatives. Chronic NSAID users have direct relation in increased prevalence of H. pylori detection while use of PPI plays safety role in prevention and reducing of H. pylori infection.