Assessment of hepatitis C risk factors in center of Iran: A case–control study

Background: Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infections remain as one of the major public health problems worldwide. The current study aimed at investigating the potential risk factors of HCV+ in a sample of Iranian patients. Materials and Methods: In a case–control study, 436 HCV-infected patients and 531 age-matched HCV antibody negative controls were recruited in a central region of Iran. Sociodemographic characteristics, blood and therapeutic factors, underlying diseases, and behavioral risk factors were evaluated through a standard checklist and compared between two study groups. Results: Although among studied potential risk factors, many of them were significantly associated with infected with HCV; however, in multivariable logistic regression model in the presence of other variables being male gender (odds ratio [OR]: 4.1; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 2.2–7.8), illiterate or less educated (OR: 62.64; 95% CI: 5.94–660.35), having history of intravenous (IV) drug addiction (OR: 33.0; 95% CI: 5.43–250.0), and tattooing (OR: 14.29; 95% CI: 1.82–90.91) increased risk of infection with HCV. Conclusion: In total, the current case–control study documented that socioecomical factors including economical state, marital status, education, and ethnicity and also other expected factors such as hospitalization, imprisonment, dialysis, tattooing, needle sharing, IV drug abuse, and extramarital sexual relationship represent an important source of HCV infection among adults in a central region of Iran. Thus, we suggest further considerations for prevention of HCV infection as most of related factors are preventable by close considerations

A case-control study of risk factors for hepatitis B infection: A regional report among Isfahanian adults

Background: Hepatitis B is one of the major causes of mortality among viral diseases. To reduce morbidity rate and increase knowledge of people about potential risk factors, the aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of hepatitis B among the general population and the risk factors associated with hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection in Isfahan, Iran. Materials and Methods: In a case–control study, 314 HBV-infected patients and 557 healthy participants were recruited. Data on demographics, immunization history, medical history, family medical history, life history, therapeutic factors, and behavioral risk factors were collected through a standard checklist. Chi-square and logistic regression were used for univariate and multivariable analyses. Results: Our results showed that among sociodemographic variables, higher age, being male, lower economic status, and lower educational attainments increased the risk of affecting by HBV (odds ratio [OR] >1, P < 0.001); furthermore, Iranian and no immigrant people showed higher significant risk of being affected by HBV. Multivariable logistic regression showed among medical, blood, and behavioral risk factors, family history of hepatitis (OR: 10.56; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 4.56–24.86), dental treatment history (OR: 4.30; 95% CI: 1.41–13.10), and hospitalization (OR: 2.94; 95% CI: 1.72–5.00). Conclusion: Our results demonstrated that there are still several risk factors for hepatitis B surface antigen infection among the Iranian adult population. Immunization programs should continue and focus on high-risk adults, and interventions should be directed toward to reduce risk factors associated with hepatitis B