A population-based serologic survey of Helicobacter pylori infection in children and adolescents in the United States.

To provide more accurate estimates of Helicobacter pylori infection in the US population, IgG antibody levels were measured in serum from 2581 persons aged 6-19 years examined during phase 1 of the third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Overall, 24.8% of participants had evidence of H. pylori infection. Infection was strongly associated with increasing age (chi 2 trend, P < .01) and being nonwhite (17.0% of non-Hispanic whites vs. 40.1% of non-Hispanic blacks and 42.0% of Mexican Americans infected). In a multivariate logistic regression model, H. pylori infection was significantly associated with increasing age (odds ratio [OR] = 1.07/year), being nonwhite (non-Hispanic black OR = 2.6 or Mexican American OR = 1.8), poverty (OR = 1.5), crowding (OR = 5.6), and head of household education level (OR = 1.8). In Mexican Americans, infection was associated with birth outside the United States or Canada in the univariate analyses but was not significantly associated after adjustment for age, poverty, crowding, and head of household education level.