Adults living with hepatitis C virus (HCV) smoked cigarettes at nearly triple the rate of adults who did not have HCV (hepatitis C-), a recent study found. Data were extracted from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) between 1999-2014. Persons living with hepatitis (hepatitis C+) were compared to hepatitis C- adults. Complete smoking and HCV data were available for 39,472 (90.1%) of 43,793 adult participants in NHANES during the study years. Researchers found:

• Hepatitis C+ adults smoked at almost triple the rate of hepatitis C- adults (62.4% vs 22.9%), with no significant difference between hepatitis C+ men and women.
• Hepatitis C+ smokers were more likely to smoke daily than hepatitis C- smokers but had similar levels of nicotine dependence.
• Hepatitis C+ smokers were more likely to be older, male, black, less educated, poor, uninsured, use drugs, and be depressed.
• There were significant associations of both hepatitis C infection and cigarette smoking with current depression and hypertension.