Background: Although hepatitis C virus (HCV) has an estimated national prevalence of 1.8%, testing rates are lower than those recommended by guidelines, particularly in primary care. A critical step is the ability to identify patients at increased risk who should be screened. We sought to prospectively derive and validate a clinical predication tool to assist primary care providers in identifying patients who should be tested for HCV antibodies. Methods: A total of 1000 randomly selected patients attending an inner-city primary care clinic filled out a 27item questionnaire assessing 5 HCV risk factor domains: work, medical, exposure, personal care, and social history. Afterward, the patients underwent HCV antibody testing. Multivariable logistic regression analysis was performed to identify risk factors associated with HCV antibodies. Results: There was an 8.3% (95% confidence interval, 6.7%-10.2%) prevalence of HCV antibodies. The patients who were HCV antibody positive were more likely to be male, older, and insured by Medicaid (PՅ.02). Those who had risk factors within the medical, exposure, and social history domains were more likely to be HCV antibody positive. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve for the screening tool based on these 3 domains was 0.77. With an increasing number of positive domains, there was a higher likelihood of HCV antibody positivity. Only 2% of patients with 0 risk factors had HCV antibodies. Conclusions: A prediction tool can be used to accurately identify patients at high risk of HCV who may benefit from serologic screening. Future studies should assess whether wider use of this tool may lead to improved outcomes.
The National Institutes of Health and other institutions have emphasized the need to expand access to treatment of chronic hepatitis C virus infection to a larger and more diverse patient population. To begin to address this need, the divisions of General Internal Medicine and Liver Diseases of the Mount Sinai Medical Center created a program to identify patients who might benefit from hepatitis C treatment, to treat uncomplicated patients in the primary care setting, and to refer appropriate patients to liver disease specialists. Preliminary data from this program suggest that primary care-based treatment of chronic hepatitis C may offer unique advantages. The primary care setting allows special needs to be addressed and allows comprehensive services to be provided. Patients are guided through the complex pretreatment evaluation process, and non-liver-related comorbidities are managed. Our program may provide a useful model for increasing hepatitis C literacy among primary care providers and for extending treatment to a broader population of patients with hepatitis C.
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