Background: Helicobacter (H.) pylori infection and metabolic syndrome (MetS) are both significant health concerns with potential interconnections. However, H. pylori infection and MetS association in the Egyptian society remains uncertain due to inconsistent findings in previous studies.
Objective: To evaluate correlations between MetS and H. pylori infection.
Patients and Methods: Totally 50 adult participants diagnosed with metabolic syndrome as MetS group and 52 healthy controls as control group were involved in our study. MetS was diagnosed regarding NECP ATP III criteria, while H. pylori stool antigen test (SAT) was utilized to determine H. pylori infection presence. Participants underwent medical history assessment, general examination, laboratory tests, including H. pylori SAT, and abdominal ultrasound.
Results: H pylori was more positive in MetS group in comparison to control group (67.3% vs. 30%, respectively, P<0.01). Logistic regression model showed that univariate analysis showed that positive H. pylori infection was a risk factor for MetS development with p value <0.001 and odds ratio 4.8 (95% CI 2.08-11.1). Multivariate logistic regression found that positive H. pylori infection is a MetS independent predictive factor with 5 folds increase in a developing MetS risk following age, gender, and body mass index (BMI) adjustment with p value 0.002.
Conclusions: H. pylori infection was significantly related to MetS incidence with 5-fold rise in MetS incidence among individuals with positive H. pylori antigen in stool test after adjusting for other risk factors.