Frequency of H. Pylori Infection in Children Presenting with Recurrent Abdominal Pain

Abstract

Objective: To determine the frequency of helicobacter pylori among children presenting with recurrent abdominal pain.

Study Design: Descriptive / Cross-sectional study.

Study and Duration of Study: This study was conducted in the in the Department of Pediatrics Hayatabad Medical Complex, Peshawar from 1st April 2016 to 30th November 2016.

Materials and Methods: Sample size was 177 using 8% proportion of H.pylori among children with Recurrent Abdominal Pain (RAP), with 95% confidence interval and 4% margin of error using WHO formula for sample size estimation.

Results: The mean age group of our sample was 11.29 ± 2.74 years of which 75.1% were male and 24.9% were female children. Most of the sampled children were in the age group between 8-16 years. The mean duration of abdominal pain was 4.86 ± 1.14 months. On ELISA, H. Pylori was detected in 24.9% of patients.

Conclusion: H. Pylori is quite common in our pediatric population presenting with recurrent abdominal pain. It is a serious calamity in children and we recommend more research to find out risk factors related to this high burden of H. Pylori.