Background: Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) infection remains a major public health challenge. It is the main bacterial cause of several gastrointestinal disorders but most of the infections remain asymptomatic. More than 50% of the people are infected worldwide with H. pylori which causes significant public health morbidity and mortality.Objective: To determine frequency of H. pylori and associated risk factors among asymptomatic students of Shalamar School of Allied Health Sciences. Material and Methods: In this cross-sectional study, we collected the venous blood samples from 99 asymptomatic students from Shalamar school of allied health sciences, Lahore. The history was taken before the collection of the sample through the completion of the questionnaire and H. pylori antibodies (IgG, IgM and IgA) were detected in serum/plasma using a lateral flow chromatographic immunoassay. Chi square test was used to determine the association between H. pylori status and study variables (socio-demographic data, drinking water, lifestyle characteristics etc).  Results: A total of 99 asymptomatic students were included in this study, in which 26 (26.3%) were males and73 (73.7%) were females. Out of 99 students, 23(23.2%) were positive but the proportion rate of H. pylori antibodies was not found to be associated with different degree programs, socio-demographic data and lifestyle characteristics. Among the studied variables, the drinking water source was found to be associated with the presence of H. pylori antibodies (p-value 0.022). Conclusions: The frequency of H. pylori infection was significant and it was related with drinking water source. These findings emphasize the importance of implementing preventive measures and improving the quality of drinking water sources to mitigate the risk of H. pylori infection.

Key words: Helicobacter pylori, Students, Asymptomatic, Drinking Water, Gastrointestinal disorders.