Helicobacter pylori induces immune tolerance and is associated with a lower risk for immune-mediated disorders, such as autoimmune and inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD). We aimed to determine the effects of treatment for H pylori infection on the incidence of autoimmune disease and IBD.
We collected data from the National Health Insurance Research Database in Taiwan on patients younger than 18 years old without a prior diagnosis of autoimmune disease or IBD. Patients with peptic ulcer disease (PUD) with treatment of H pylori infection (PUD+HPRx), PUD without H pylori treatment (PUD-HPRx), a urinary tract infection (UTI) treated with cephalosporin, or without PUD (controls) were matched for age, sex, insurance, and Charlson's comorbidity index score.
Of the 1 million patients we collected data from in 2005, we included 79,181 patients in the study. We compared the effects of treatment for H pylori infection on the risk of autoimmunity or IBD and found that PUD+HPRx has the highest adjusted hazard risk (aHR) for autoimmunity or IBD (aHR, 2.36), compared to PUD-HPRx (aHR, 1.91) or UTI (aHRs, 1.71) (P < .001). The increased risk of autoimmune disease was not completely accounted for by antibiotic therapy alone, because PUD+HPRx had a higher aHR than UTI (P < .001). A small but significant increase in mortality was observed in the PUD+HPRx cohort (aHR, 1.11; P = .001).
In an analysis of data from the National Health Insurance Research Database in Taiwan, we found that treatment for H pylori infection is associated with a significant increase in the risk for autoimmune disease, including IBD.