Association between alcohol consumption, cigarette smoking, and Helicobacter pylori infection in Iraqi patients submitted to gastrointestinal endoscopy

Abstract

Objective: The aim of this paper was to assess the prevalence and association between H. pylori infection and alcohol, or cigarette use among Iraqi patients. Methods: 115 individuals needed upper gastrointestinal endoscopies in total. Reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), urea breath test, rapid urease test, CagA-IgG, and culture were all used to confirm H. pylori infection. The information on alcohol consumption, smoking, sex, and age was collected using a standard questionnaire. Results: The gold standard test, RT-PCR, was used to detect H. pylori infection in 81 (70.4%) of patients. H. pylori infection was not affected by age (OR: 0.976; CI: 95% (0.944-1.009; P > 0.05), sex (OR: 1.26, 95% CI: 0.57-2.75; P > 0.05), or alcohol intake (OR: 0.293; CI: 95% (0.081-1.058; P > 0.05) according to the binary logistic regression analysis. Additionally, there was a considerable inverse association between smoking and H pylori infection (OR: 0.094; CI: 95% (0.025- 0.352; P < 0.05). According to binary logistic regression analysis, both smoking (OR: 0.036; CI: 95% (0.007- 0.182; P < 0.05) and alcohol intake (OR: 0.179; CI: 95% (0.041- 0.988; P < 0.05) were inversely and significantly related with H. pylori illness whereas H. pylori infection did not alter with age (OR: 1.001; CI 95% (0.959-1.044; P > 0.05) in the male subgroup. Conclusions: According to the study, males who smoke and drink are more likely to have H. pylori infections. Furthermore, there was no positive association between age and H. pylori infection.