No association between Helicobacter pylori infection and gastrointestinal complaints in a large cohort of symptomatic children.

Aim This Polish study estimated the prevalence of the Helicobacter pylori infection in symptomatic children aged 3-18 and investigated its association with gastrointestinal complaints. Methods We prospectively enrolled 1984 children (54% female) with a mean age of 9.5 ± 4.1 years, from Silesia, Poland, for the Good Diagnosis Treatment Life screening programme from 2009 to 2016. They underwent a 13 C-isotope-labelled urea breath test (UBT) to assess their Helicobacter pylori status, making this the biggest Polish study to use this approach. Further analysis included parental-reported gastrointestinal symptoms and standard deviation scores (SDS) of anthropometric measurements. Results The Hel…