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HCV Higher in Female Drug Injectors Than Males

J Viral Hepat; ePub 2016 Oct 28; Esmaeili, et al

Publish date:

There is sufficient statistical power to detect sex differences as they pertain to female-to-male (F:M) hepatitis C (HCV) incidence in persons who inject drugs (PWID), according to a recent literature review. Researchers systematically reviewed studies published between 1989 and March 2015 for research that reported incidence of HCV infection by sex or HCV incidence F:M rate ratio. A total of 28 studies, which enrolled 9,325 PWID, were included. They found:

  • The overall pooled HCV incidence rate (per 100 person-years observation) was 20.36 and 15.20 in females and males, respectively.
  • F:M ratio was 1.36:1 with substantial heterogeneity.
  • The F:M ratio varied by geographic location from 4.0 in China to 1.17 in the US.
  • In studies which recruited participants from community settings, the F:M ratio was 1.24, which was lower than that reported in the clinical settings.

Citation:

Esmaeili A, Mirzazadeh A, Carter GM, Esmaeili A, et al. Higher incidence of HCV in females compared to males who inject drugs: A systematic review and meta-analysis. [Published online ahead of print October 28, 2016]. J Viral Hepat. doi:10.1111/jvh.12628.

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