Hospital-based studies suggest that hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection causes frequent cirrhosis, hepatocellular carcinoma, and mortality, but epidemiologic studies have shown less morbidity and mortality. The authors performed a retrospective cohort study of 10,259 recombinant immunoblot assay-confirmed, HCV antibody-positive (HCV+), allogeneic blood donors from 1991 to 2002 and 10,259 HCV antibody-negative (HCV-) donors matched for year of donation, age, gender, and Zone Improvement Plan Code (ZIP Code). Vital status through 2003 was obtained from the US National Death Index, and hazard ratios with 95% confidence intervals were calculated by survival analysis. After a mean follow-up of 7.7 years, there were 601 (2.92%) deaths: 453 HCV+ and 148 HCV- (hazard ratio (HR) = 3.13, 95% confidence interval (CI): 2.60, 3.76). Excess mortality in the HCV+ group was greatest in liver-related (HR = 45.99, 95% CI: 11.32, 186.74), drug- or alcohol-related (HR = 10.81, 95% CI: 4.68, 24.96), and trauma/suicide (HR = 2.99, 95% CI: 2.05, 4.36) causes. There was also an unexpected increase in cardiovascular mortality among the HCV+ donors (HR = 2.21, 95% CI: 1.41, 3.46). HCV infection is associated with a significant, threefold increase in overall mortality among former blood donors, including significantly increased mortality from liver and cardiovascular causes. High rates of mortality from drug/alcohol and trauma/suicide causes are likely due to lifestyle factors and may be at least partially preventable.
