Reduced risk of atopic disorders in adults with... : European Journal of Gastroenterology & Hepatology (original) (raw)

Original articles: Helicobacter

Reduced risk of atopic disorders in adults with Helicobacter pylori infection

McCune, Annea; Lane, Atheneb; Murray, Liamb; Harvey, Ianb; Nair, Prakasha; Donovan, Jennyb; Harvey, Richarda

aDepartment of Medicine, Frenchay Hospital, and bDepartment of Social Medicine, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK.

This study was funded jointly by the South West NHS R&D Directorate and GlaxoSmithKline UK. The Department of Social Medicine is the lead centre for the MRC Health Services Research Collaboration.

See leading article pp. 635–636

Correspondence to Dr Anne McCune, Department of Gastroenterology, Frenchay Hospital, Frenchay Park Road, Bristol BS16 1LE, UK. e-mail: [email protected]

Received 19 June 2002 Revised 23 October 2002 Accepted 17 December 2002

Abstract

Background

Childhood infections may be necessary to prime the developing immune system in an appropriate manner. In developed countries, the incidence of childhood infections is decreasing, which might explain the observed rise in the prevalence of asthma and other atopic disorders in recent years.

Aim

To determine whether Helicobacter pylori gastritis, a chronic bacterial infection that is usually acquired in early childhood and then persists throughout life, affects the risk of developing asthma and other atopic disorders.

Study design

Cross-sectional study of the prevalence of three atopic disorders in 3244 subjects participating in a community-based, prospective, randomized, controlled trial of H. pylori eradication, the Bristol Helicobacter Project. The presence or absence of active H. pylori infection was determined by the13C-urea breath test. The prevalence of asthma, eczema and allergic rhinitis was measured by assessing the use of appropriate medications as surrogate markers for these conditions.

Results

There was a 30% reduction in the prevalence of all three atopic disorders in people who had active H. pylori infection, although for each individual atopic disorder the numbers were not quite large enough to reach statistical significance.

Conclusions

H. pylori infection is associated with a substantially reduced risk of three common atopic disorders. This is further indirect evidence of the importance of childhood infections in influencing the development of a normal immune response. As such infections become progressively less common in developed countries such as the UK, other methods will need to be developed to try to reduce the risk of atopic disorders.