Lactose maldigestion in different age groups of north Indians.

Lactase activity with age has been reported in a wide variety of population globally. However, most of these studies in human have ignored to assess age stratified lactose maldigestion. Therefore, the present study was planned to determine lactose maldigestion in different age groups of north Indians adults. Two hundred apparently healthy north Indians (age rage 10-80 years) were subjected to a 50g lactose hydrogen breath test by standard method using a Model 12 Microlyzer from Quintron, USA. The percentage of lactose maldigestion was calculated for different age groups with an interval of 10 years. The results of this study revealed that the frequency of lactose maldigestion did not differ significantly among the age groups. Thus, this study suggests that lactose maldigestion is not associated with age stratification among north Indians.