The effects of Helicobacter pylori eradication and development of immune-mediated disorder in children: a nationwide population-based study in Korea

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Helicobacter pylori may protect against immune-mediated disorders such as inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and asthma. This study evaluated whether eradication was associated with IBD and asthma in Korean children. METHODS: Data were collected from the Korean National Health Insurance information on patients younger than 18 years and without a prior diagnosis of IBD or asthma from January 2007 to September 2020. Patients confirmed with H. pylori infection were divided into the eradication and non-eradication group. We compared the incidence of IBD and asthma in infected patients with an age, and sex-matched control group. RESULTS: In total, 979,663 patients were selected based on the inclusion criteria and 2,779 patients were included based on the exclusion criteria. The occurrence of IBD in infected patients was statistically significant (p < 0.05) but there was no association of infection with asthma. There was no association with eradication and the development of IBD and asthma. The infected group had a shorter duration till diagnosis of IBD than the control group. CONCLUSION: Our study found H. pylori infection to be associated with the development of IBD in children. However, eradication does not increase IBD and asthma in children.