Trends in hepatitis C virus infection among patients in the HIV Outpatient Study, 1996-2007.

BACKGROUND

Coinfection with hepatitis C virus (HCV) contributes increasingly to the morbidity and mortality of persons infected with HIV. We assessed HCV infection screening practices and determined trends in the prevalence of HCV infection in the HIV Outpatient Study (HOPS) from 1996 to 2007.

METHODS

We calculated the proportion of patients eligible to be tested for HCV infection (i.e., never tested or previously tested negative) and the prevalence of HCV infection annually from 1996 to 2007 by sociodemographic, clinical, and HIV risk category characteristics. We used multiple logistic regression analyses to evaluate factors independently associated with HCV testing.

RESULTS

A total of 7618 patients were active in the HOPS from 1996 through 2007. The proportion of eligible patients tested for HCV infection increased from 10.7% in 1996 to 76.6% in 2007 and increased among all demographic and risk groups. Overall HCV prevalence decreased from 36.7% in 1996 to 19.7% in 2007; decreases in prevalence occurred among all groups except for injection drug users (IDUs). In multivariable analysis, age older than 35 years, nonwhite race, Hispanic ethnicity, high-risk heterosexual and IDU risk categories, and at least 3 years of enrollment in the HOPS were associated with increased odds of having been tested for HCV infection.

CONCLUSIONS

Screening for HCV infection in the HOPS has improved, although a sizable fraction of patients remain unscreened. The decline in overall HCV infection prevalence from 1996 to 2007 resulted primarily from a decline in the fraction of all prevalent infections in the cohort attributable to IDU patients.