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A study that explored the healthcare burden of chronic infection of the hepatitis C virus found that patients with the disease were more than 3 times likely to be hospitalized than patients in a comparison group.
Researchers analyzed data collected over seven years from the Chronic Hepatitis Cohort Study, an observational cohort of hepatitis C patients, and compared hospitalization rates with two groups of health system patients. Results of the study, which was funded by the CDC Foundation, were published in the Journal of Viral Hepatitis.
“Chronic HCV infection has been associated with increased risk of developing nonliver cancers including non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and renal cancer,” stated lead author E.H. Teshale, MD, of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s division of viral hepatitis. “Many studies have shown that cost of inpatient care is a major part of the cost of HCV care and the frequency and cost of hospitalization have increased in recent years in association with the ageing of the HCV-infected birth cohort.”
In their study, researchers compared hospitalization rates of 10,131 patients with chronic hepatitis C infection to 20,262 health system patients. The study excluded patients with hepatitis C if they were coinfected with HIV, hepatitis B or had received a liver transplant.