Helicobacter pylori prevalence in Turkey: A population-based, cross-sectional, screening with the 13C-urea breath test

H.pylori is an important global pathogen infecting approximately 50% of the world's population. This study was undertaken in order to estimate the prevalence rate of H.pylori-infection among adults living in Turkey and to investigate associated factors.
Methods
This study was a nationally-representative cross-sectional survey, using weighted-multistage-stratified-cluster-sampling. All individuals aged ≥18 years in the selected-households were invited to participate in the survey. Ninety-two % (n=2382) of the households in 55 cities participated, 4622 individuals were tested with the 13C-Urea-breath-test and interviewed. H.pylori-prevalence and associated factors were analysed by the t-test, chi-square and multiple logistic regression with SPSS11.0. 
Results
The weighted-overall-prevalence was 82.5%(95% CI:81.0-84.2) and more prevalent in men than women (83.9% and 81.4% respectively, p<0.05). It was lowest in the South and highest in the East. The major fruit growing areas of the country are in the South whereas the West is the most developed region. The factors included in the final model of the logistic regression were sex, age, education, marital status, social security, drinking water source, smoking, alcohol, residential region. In the models by sex, while education was the only significant factor for women, residential region, housing-tenure, smoking and alcohol were significant for men.
Conclusions
In Turkey, H.pylori was found to be very high. Individuals, who were women, elderly-adults, single, high-educational-level, living in the South, having social security of Emekli-Sandigi, bottled drinking water, non-smoker and regular alcohol-consumer, were under less risk of H.pylori-infection than others.