| Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is the most common blood-borne viral infection with severe complications in the United States. No vaccine is available to prevent HCV infection, and mortality from HCV is expected to triple that of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) by the year of 2030. The impact of sociodemographic and lifestyle factors on HCV infection is unclear. Previous research, however, indicated that poverty and cigarette smoking might lower immunity and increase opportunity of infection. The purpose of this study was to explore the association of HCV infection with sociodemographic and lifestyle factors because those factors have been reported to be associated with some infectious diseases. A pooled sample (1999-2006) of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys (NHANES) was employed for the study. Adjusted odds ratios from multivariate analysis were used to assess impact of these risk factors on HCV infection. Both cigarette smoking and poverty were more strongly associated with HCV infection than three of four established HCV risk factors: non-injection drug use, blood transfusion, and multiple sexual partners. U.S.-born Mexican Americans had the highest odds, while Mexico-born Mexican Americans had the lowest odds, of HCV infection among ethnic groups; both U.S.-born Mexican Americans and African Americans had higher odds of HCV infection than non-Hispanic Whites. The social change implications are that race/ethnicity, poverty and cigarette smoking status should be considered in guiding screening, education, and prevention strategies for HCV infection. |
