Parental history of gastric or duodenal ulcer and prevalence of Helicobacter pylori infection in preschool children: population based study.

Helicobacter pylori infection is present in almost all patients with duodenal ulcers and 80-90% of patients with gastric ulcers, whereas the prevalence of infection among young adults without a history of ulcer is fairly low in Western countries. To investigate the importance of transmission from parent to child we assessed the relation between a parent’s history of gastric or duodenal ulcer and infection with H pylori in his or her offspring in a large population of preschool children.