Title
Risk Factors Associated with Linkage to Care among Suburban Hepatitis C-Positive Baby Boomers and Injection Drug Users
Date Issued
01 September 2019
Access level
open access
Resource Type
research article
Author(s)
Lier A.J.
Smith K.
Odekon K.
Bronson S.
Taub E.
Tharakan M.
Kelly G.J.
Patel P.
Stony Brook University Hospital
Publisher(s)
Springer Healthcare
Abstract
Introduction: Suffolk County, located in Eastern Long Island, has been an epicenter for the opioid epidemic in New York State, yet no studies have examined hepatitis C virus (HCV) prevalence in this population. Additionally, few studies have assessed barriers for linkage to care (LTC) to HCV treatment in people who inject drugs (PWID), a high-risk HCV cohort. We aimed to determine prevalence of HCV infection in a suburban medical center and to assess risk factors associated with LTC in HCV-positive baby boomers and young PWID. Methods: A retrospective chart review was carried out on adult patients with ICD-9/10 diagnostic codes for HCV from January 2016 to December 2018 at Stony Brook Medicine. Data collected included sociodemographics, RNA serostatus, LTC, health insurance, employment, past medical or psychiatric history, and substance or injection drug use. Results: Overall, 27,049 individuals were screened for HCV and 1017 were HCV seropositive (3.8%), 437 (42.9%) were HCV RNA-positive and 153 (40.6%) achieved LTC. In multivariate analysis, living with cirrhosis was associated with a positive LTC. Medicaid or Medicare insurance was associated with a negative LTC. Intravenous drug users were more likely to be young and have concomitant polysubstance use and psychiatric disease. A bimodal distribution of HCV-positives is present in our population. Conclusion: Those with liver cirrhosis are more likely to achieve LTC, as are those with private insurance. Public health efforts to promote awareness of HCV and to facilitate access to treatment among PWID are needed.
Start page
417
End page
428
Volume
8
Issue
3
Language
English
OCDE Knowledge area
Genética humana
Otras ciencias médicas
Subjects
Scopus EID
2-s2.0-85067657644
Source
Infectious Diseases and Therapy
ISSN of the container
21938229
Sponsor(s)
We thank the participants of the study. No funding or sponsorship was received for this study or publication of this article. The article processing charges were funded by the authors. All named authors meet the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) criteria for authorship for this article, take responsibility for the integrity of the work as a whole, and have given their approval for this version to be published. Pruthvi Patel and Luis A. Marcos have received a grant from FOCUS (Gilead Sciences, Inc.). Luis A. Marcos has participated as an advisor for Gilead and has received consultation fees from Gilead. Audun J. Lier, Kalie Smith, Kerim Odekon, Silvia Bronson, Erin Taub, Mathew Tharakan and Gerald J. Kelly do not have any conflicts of interest to declare. FOCUS funding supports HIV, HCV, and hepatitis b virus (HBV) screening and linkage to the first medical appointment after diagnosis. This project was reviewed and approved by the Institutional Review Board (IRB) at SBM, IRB #1033821, who waived the requirement for informed consent. This study was performed in accordance with the Helsinki Declaration of 1964 and its later amendments. As data were collected utilizing a retrospective chart review and placed into a deidentified patient database, harm was minimized and patient consent for study participation was therefore not obtained. The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.
Sources of information:
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