Helicobacter Pylori Antigen in the Mothers Stool and That of Their Children in Kakamega County Hospitals

Abstract

Background:Helicobacter pylori prevalence in children may be affected by the infection status of the mother as speculated by recent studies and the family socio-economic status. Studies done in Kenya have not tried to establish an association between the mothers’ infection status and that of their children. In families where the mother spends most of her time with the child, it is thought that she plays a major role in transmission. Main Objective: To establish the association between presence of H.Pylori antigen in mothers stool and that of their children in Kakamega County. Design: Cross sectional study Methodology: A total of 492 Mothers and children who met the inclusion criteria were recruited by consecutive sampling through mother-child pairing; but 430 were tested and included in the final analysis. Their H. pylori infection status was determined by testing for H. pylori antigens in their stool samples using the lateral flow chromatographic immunoassay method and was documented as negative or positive. The family socioeconomic status (SES) was assessed using the modified Hollingshead four factor indexes for SES assessment. vi Results: The prevalence of H. pylori stool antigen in children was 21.8% and 18.7% in of mothers while study population prevalence was 20 %. There was a statistically significant association between mothers H. pylori Stool Antigen Test (SAT) results and that of their children’s (value<0.001). The proportion of mother-child- positive (37%) was 2.7 times that of mother-negative-child positive (13.7%). Children with H. pylori SAT positive results were 5 times more likely to have a mother with a positive H. pylori SAT result compared to those with negative result which was statistically significant (p-value <0.001). Only the association between mother’s H. pylori SAT results and economic status of the family was statistically significant (p value<0.05). Conclusion: The study strengthens previous evidence that there’s an association between the H. pylori infection status of the mother and their children. The prevalence in children has reduced compared to similar studies conducted in Kenya. The effect of the family social economic status on infection status of the children was not clearly demonstrated in this study.