Helicobacter pylori and gastritis in Peruvian patients: relationship to socioeconomic level, age, and sex. The Gastrointestinal Physiology Working Group.

Studies in 1,120 Peruvian adults suffering from upper gastrointestinal symptoms and stratified according to socioeconomic level, age, and sex have shown the following: Rates of Helicobacter pylori infection range from 3% in patients with normal gastric mucosa to 92% in cases of chronic active gastritis. Age-specific infection rates do not vary with the severity of active gastritis and are similar in men from low and high socioeconomic levels. Women from higher socioeconomic backgrounds show a significantly lower age-specific rate of infection than women from lower levels or from men from either level. In addition, a seroepidemiologic survey of children, predominantly from families from lower socioeconomic levels, demonstrates that infection begins for many of them in the first years of life.