Eradication of Helicobacter pylori increases childhood growth and serum acylated ghrelin levels

Table 2 Comparison of the demographic background, baseline body parameters, and the changes of growth among the different groups of the intervention cohort completed the one-year follow-up (mean ± SD)

Groups	H. pylori eradication failure	H. pylori eradication success	H. pylori-negative controls
n	17	34	153
Age (yr)	8.4 ± 1.9	8.7 ± 2.0	9.0 ± 1.7
Sex (female:male)	10:07	19:15	81 : 72
Family peptic ulcer history (%)	44.4	29.4	21
Intra-familial members ≥ 5 (%)	33.3	29.4	32.1
Low income (%)	28.6	53.3	44.1
Baseline serum acylated ghrelin (pg/mL)ac	37.2 ± 31.4	44.2 ± 37.9	83.6 ± 24.2
Body weight (kg)
At enrollment	32.2 ± 10.6	32.9 ± 11.4	36.1 ± 11.4
z score at enrollment	0.44 ± 1.00	0.35 ± 1.04	0.60 ± 0.87
The 1st year	37.2 ± 11.7	38.7 ± 13.8	41.0 ± 12.6
z score at the 1st year	0.56 ± 0.88	0.49 ± 1.03	0.61 ± 0.88
Net changec	5.03 ± 2.77	5.84 ± 3.37	4.84 ± 2.35
Increase of z score (%)c	23.5	38.2	17.6
Body height (cm)
At enrollment	134.6 ± 12.7	134.3 ± 11.7	135.7 ± 12.5
z score at enrollment	0.62 ± 0.99	0.44 ± 0.88	0.33 ± 0.77
The 1st year	141.8 ± 11.8	142.3 ± 12.8	141.5 ± 13.0
z score at the 1st yearac	0.77 ± 0.94	0.63 ± 0.75	0.32 ± 0.79
Net changec,e	7.20 ± 2.85	8.00 ± 2.78	5.85 ± 1.81
Increase of z score (%)c	35.3	35.3	15.7
BMI (kg/m2)
At enrollmenta	17.1 ± 2.6	17.7 ± 4.1	19.0 ± 3.7
z score at enrollmentc	0.24 ± 0.75	0.21 ± 1.14	0.68 ± 0.87
The 1st year	18.1 ± 3.1	18.8 ± 4.7	20.0 ± 3.8
z score at the 1st yearc	0.35 ± 0.82	0.27 ± 1.12	0.67 ± 0.87
Net change	0.98 ± 1.57	1.10 ± 1.56	0.99 ± 1.03
Increase of z score (%)	35.3	32.4	17

Low income: Indicated < $15000 US/year. Increase of z score means that z scores of body weight, height and body mass index (BMI) were upgrade at the one-year follow-up than at the enrollment (the net change > 0). The difference of the body weight, height, BMI and ghrelin level among the three groups were analyzed by oneway analysis of variance model with least significant difference correction. The difference of the up-shift of the z scores of body weight, height and BMI were analyzed by χ² test.

^aP < 0.05 between H. pylori-positive subjects with eradication failure and controls,

^cP < 0.05 between H. pylori-positive subjects with eradication success and controls.