Prevalence of Helicobacter Pylori in Obese Adults: A Literature Review

Obesity is a major health challenge of the 21st century and the number of obese people is increasing worldwide and with it the number of people suffering from obesity-related diseases. The relationship between the presence of obesity and Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) infection has long been a subject of interest across the literature. The presented review aimed to analyze the prevalence of H. pylori in adults with higher BMI. A literature search was conducted using the electronic databases Scopus, PubMed and Web of science. The term “Helicobacter pylori” was searched with obesity-related keyword combinations. A total of 1.109 records, published in the last 18 years, were identified through the database search. Of these articles, seven were ultimately included in the analysis. Although the studies did not all agree on the same conclusion, most of them have shown that the greater prevalence of H. pylori can be observed in participants with higher BMI, than in normal-weight individuals. A higher prevalence of H. pylori can be observed in obese individuals. However, further research is needed to clearly confirm the BMI-H. pylori relationship.