ArticleHelicobacter2011
Helicobacter pylori and the birth cohort effect: evidence for stabilized colonization rates in childhood.
Article in Helicobacter, 2011. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 30 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
30 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 66 citations in OpenAlex.
- Burden of gastric cancer attributable to Helicobacter pylori in 27 countries from seven geographic regions in 2022.Gastric cancer : official journal of the International Gastric Cancer Association and the Japanese Gastric Cancer Association · 2026Pooled it
- Changing trends in the prevalence of H. pylori infection in Japan (1908-2003): a systematic review and meta-regression analysis of 170,752 individuals.Scientific reports · 2017Pooled it
- Prevalence of Helicobacter pylori infection worldwide: a systematic review of studies with national coverage.Digestive diseases and sciences · 2014Pooled it
- Updating the Prevalence ofJournal of clinical medicine · 2026Article
- Review
- Birth cohort and age-specific trends in globalLancet regional health. Americas · 2025Review
- Association ofJournal of clinical medicine · 2023Article
- Changes in prevalence ofBMJ open · 2022Article
- Epidemiology ofPeerJ · 2022Article
- Prevalence and risk factors ofAmerican journal of translational research · 2022Article
- Advances in the Aetiology & Endoscopic Detection and Management of Early Gastric Cancer.Cancers · 2021Review
- Changes in Seroprevalence ofJournal of Korean medical science · 2020Article
- Article
- When is Helicobacter pylori acquired in populations in developing countries? A birth-cohort study in Bangladeshi children.Gut microbes · 2018Article
- Article
- Diagnostic yield of esophagogastroduodenoscopy in children with chronic abdominal pain.Archives of medical science : AMS · 2018Article
- Helicobacter pylori in children with asthmatic conditions at school age, and their mothers.Alimentary pharmacology & therapeutics · 2016Article
- Inverse Relationship Between Helicobacter Pylori Infection and Asthma Among Adults Younger than 40 Years: A Cross-Sectional Study.Medicine · 2016Article
- Article
- Systematic review of time trends in the prevalence of Helicobacter pylori infection in China and the USA.Gut pathogens · 2016Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundThe prevalence of Helicobacter pylori has declined over recent decades in developed countries. The increasing prevalence with age is largely because of a birth cohort effect. We previously observed a decline in H. pylori prevalence in 6- to 8-year-old Dutch children from 19% in 1978 to 9% in 1993. Knowledge about birth-cohort-related H. pylori prevalence is relevant as a predictor for the future incidence of H. pylori-associated conditions.
aimThe aim of this study was to investigate whether the birth cohort effect of H. pylori observed between 1978 and 1993 continued in subsequent years.
methodsAnti-H. pylori IgG antibodies and anti-CagA IgG antibodies were determined in serum samples obtained in 2005/2006 from 545 Dutch children aged 7-9 years who participated in the Prevention and Incidence of Asthma and Mite Allergy birth cohort. The H. pylori and CagA antibodies were determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays that have been extensively validated in children, with a 94% sensitivity for H. pylori colonization and a 92.5% sensitivity for colonization with a cagA-positive strain.
resultsOf the 545 children (M/F 300/245), most (91.5%) were of Dutch descent. The H. pylori positivity rate was 9% (95% CI 6.6-11.4%). The prevalence of CagA antibodies was 0.9% (95% CI 0.1-1.6%). No significant differences were demonstrated in H. pylori and cagA prevalence in relation to gender or ethnicity.
conclusionThe prevalence of H. pylori in childhood has remained stable in the Netherlands from 1993 to 2005, suggesting a stabilization of the previously decreasing trend in subsequent birth cohorts. This finding may reflect stabilization in determinants such as family size, housing, and hygienic conditions (or offset by day care). If confirmed in other populations in developed countries, it implies that colonization with H. pylori will remain common in the coming decades. Remarkably however, the rate of colonization with cagA(+) H. pylori strains has become very low, consistent with prior observations that cagA(+) strains are disappearing in Western countries.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.