Risk factors for un-investigated dyspepsia among primary care patients in northern Nigeria

Many risk factors have been speculated to be associated with uninvestigated dyspepsia amongst different population groups. Some of which have been subjected to epidemiological survey while others remain unevaluated.

We evaluated some of the documented risk factors amongst patient presenting with uninvestigated dyspepsia and compared with a matched group without dyspepsia in a primary care setting.

The study was a matched case controlled study. 103 consecutive patient aged between 18 and 50 years that presented with dyspepsia (cases) were enrolled. These were matched by age and sex with the same number of subjects without dyspepsia (controls). Data were collated using a structured questionnaire Odds ratios and p-values were used to determine the significance of documented categorical risk factors associated with dyspepsia using two by two tables. For risk factors that were continuous variables the means, standard deviations and p-values were used. Risk factors with their p-values <0.2 were entered into logistic regression to identify those independently associated with dyspepsia.

H.pylori seropositivity was 22.3% and 13.6% among cases and controls respectively (p = 0.10). Pepper intake (p <0.0001) and tea intake (p = 0.0002) and greater years of education (p = 0.0065) were significantly associated with dyspepsia. H. pylori seropositivity was not related to the risk of developing dyspepsia.

Helicobacter pylori seropositivity was not found to be a significant contributor to risk of developing dyspepsia among the studied population contrary to general belief. Pepper intake, tea intake and greater years of education were found to significant contributors to dyspepsia.