Community health centers (CHCs) should consider opportunities to improve HCV infection screening, thereby contributing to the reduction of health inequities resulting from untreated HCV infection. This according to a study of 60,772 adults at risk for HCV infection who had a patient office visit. Researchers found:

• 8.3% of patients had an HCV infection screen in accordance with US Preventive Services Task Force birth cohort screening guidelines.

• Women were less likely to be screened than men in every race/ethnic group, including white Hispanic (9.3% in women vs 5.4% in men), black Hispanic (15.1% vs 9.0%), white non-Hispanic (13.6% vs 8.1%), black non-Hispanic (14.9% vs 8.9%) Caribbean Islander or Haitian (6.5% vs 3.7%), and other races/ethnicities (6.3% vs 3.6%).

Citation: Cook N, Turse EP, Garcia AS, Hardigan P, Amofah SA. Hepatitis C virus infection screening within community health centers. J Am Osteopath Assoc. 2016;116(1):6-11. doi: 10.7556/jaoa.2016.001.