Holly Hagan|Enrique R. Pouget|Ian T. Williams|Richard S. Garfein|Steffanie A. Strathdee|Sharon Hudson|Mary H. Latka|Lawrence J. Ouellet
Attribution of Hepatitis C Virus Seroconversion Risk in Young Injection Drug Users in 5 US Cities
New York University|National Development and Research Institutes|National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases|National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases|University of California, San Diego|University of California, San Diego|Health Research Alliance|Aurum Institute|University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign|University of Illinois at Chicago
background studies hepatitis c virus hcv seroconversion injection drug users idus questioned whether underreporting syringe sharing stigmatized behavior led misattribution hcv risk injectionrelated behaviors methods idus aged 1530 years seronegative human immunodeficiency virus hcv antibodies recruited prospective study 5 us cities behavioral data collected via computerassisted selfinterviewing reduce socially desirable reporting hazard ratios hrs estimated assess associations behavior hcv seroconversion shared use cookers cottons rinse water highly correlated summary variable created represent drug preparation equipment sharing results among 483 idus injected period covered followup assessments incidence hcv infection 172 cases per 100 person years hiv seroconversions occurred adjusting confounders shared use drug preparation equipment significantly associated hcv seroconversion adjusted hr 266 95 confidence interval 1032392 syringe sharing adjusted hr 091 estimated 37 hcv seroconversions idus due sharing drug preparation equipment conclusions associations sharing drug preparation equipment hcv seroconversion attributable underascertainment syringe sharing avoiding hcv infection require substantial reductions exposure sources contaminated blood