Prevalence and Risk Factors of Gastritis in Shahdara and Associated Areas

Abstract

ABSTRACT: Gastritis is a painful condition in which the inside surface of the stomach becomes inflamed. The study was conducted from December 2019 to March 2020 on 400 patients. The purpose was to investigate the prevalence of gastritis and its risk factors in local population. The subjects were selected randomly. Thequestionnaires were filled by them. The questions included the demographical information and contributing factors of gastritis. The result showed that the prevalence of gastritis was 73.5%. Among 294 patients, the prevalence of gastritis in females (65.98%) was higher than in males (34.01%). The mean age of the population was 38.8years ±0.65, the mean height was 160.9cm ±0.74 for females and 163.47 ±0.83 for males, the mean weight was 67.39Kg± 1.0 for females and 69.04 ±1.03 for males and the mean BMI was 25.98Kg/m2 ±0.35 and 25.87Kg/m2 ±0.37 for females and males respectively. It was found that there was a significant association between gastritis and contributing risk factors like psychological stress, history of frequent intake of antiinflammatorydrugs, smoking, eating spicy foods, oily foods, taking soft drinks and tea. The common symptoms were heart burning, the bad taste of the mouth, abdominal bloating, indigestion and swelling in the stomach. This study reported high prevalence of gastritis in Shahdara and its associated area. As its prevalence is increasing day by day in Pakistan. Therefore, it is important to investigate prevalence of gastritis as well as its associated risk factors at larger scale to overcome it.