1. Benzodiazepine Use and Hepatitis C Seroconversion in a Cohort of Persons Who Inject Drugs.
- Author
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Bach, Paxton, Walton, Geoffrey, Hayashi, Kanna, Milloy, M.-J., Huiru Dong, Kerr, Thomas, Montaner, Julio, and Wood, Evan
- Subjects
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INTRAVENOUS drug abuse , *BENZODIAZEPINES , *CONFIDENCE intervals , *STATISTICAL correlation , *HEPATITIS C , *LONGITUDINAL method , *REGRESSION analysis , *RESEARCH funding , *TRANQUILIZING drugs , *DRUG abusers , *SEROCONVERSION , *DATA analysis software , *DESCRIPTIVE statistics , *KAPLAN-Meier estimator , *LOG-rank test , *ODDS ratio - Abstract
Objectives. To examine the relationship between benzodiazepine (BZD) use and HCV seroconversion in 2 linked prospective cohorts of persons who inject drugs (PWID). Methods. We examined prospective cohorts of 440 PWID (baseline BZD users: n = 102; 23.2%) from the AIDS Care Cohort to Evaluate Access to Survival Services (ACCESS) and the Vancouver Injection Drug Users Study (VIDUS) cohorts, followed-up from 1996 to 2013 in Vancouver, Canada. Results. At baseline, the prevalence of HCV was higher among those who used BZD (80.5% vs 61.5%; P < .001). After adjustment, BZD use remained independently associated with increased rates of HCV seroconversion (adjusted rate ratio = 1.67; 95% confidence interval = 1.05, 2.66). Conclusions. BZD use is independently associated with HCV seroconversion in a population of PWID. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2016
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