Prevalence of Helicobacter pylori Infection and Identification of Risk Factors in Rural and Urban Beijing, China

Background: The prevalence of Helicobacter pylori is higher in developing countries such as China. The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of H. pylori in one rural and one urban region of Beijing, China. Materials and Methods: Healthy individuals in rural Pinggu and urban Haidian voluntarily participated in this study. The diagnosis of H. pylori infection was reached using the 13C‐urea breath test. Associations between H. pylori and sex, age, living area (i.e. rural vs urban), education level, smoking, and alcohol consumption were evaluated. Results: Of the 1232 included subjects, 54.7% of tested individuals residing in Pinggu and 41.3% in Haidian were positive for H. pylori. In urban region, more individuals were negative for H. pylori (429 of 731), whereas in the rural region, more individuals were positive for H. pylori (p