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Self-reported hepatitis B and C virus infections had low sensitivity among HIV-infected patients.

Lo Re V, Frank I, Gross R, Synnestvedt M, Localio AR, Kostman JR, Strom BL

Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA 19104-6021, USA. vincent.lore@uphs.upenn.edu

OBJECTIVE: To determine the validity of self-reported hepatitis B virus (HBV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV) in HIV-infected injection drug users (IDUs) vs. nonIDUs. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was performed among HIV-infected IDUs and nonIDUs in the Penn Center for AIDS Research (CFAR) Database. Self-reported past HBV, HCV, and serostatus were obtained from the CFAR Database. RESULTS: Among 970 subjects (798 nonIDUs; 172 IDUs), there was no difference in sensitivity of self-reported HBV between nonIDUs (27% [95/346]; 95% CI, 23%-32%) and IDUs (26% [31/117]; 95% CI, 19%-35%; P>0.5), but specificity was greater among nonIDUs (96% [360/374; 95% CI, 94%-98%] vs. 78% [28/36; 95% CI, 61%-90%]; P<0.001). Sensitivity of self-reported HCV was greater among IDUs (78% [101/130; 95% CI, 70%-85%] vs. 62% [47/76; 95% CI, 50%-73%]; P=0.02), but there was no difference in specificity (97% [626/643]; 95% CI, 96%-98% for nonIDUs vs. 93% [26/28]; 95% CI, 76%-99%] for IDUs; P=0.2). CONCLUSIONS: The sensitivity of self-reported HBV and HCV compared to actual serostatus are not sufficiently high enough to warrant their use to estimate the prevalence and incidence of these infections.

Published 12 February 2007 in J Clin Epidemiol, 60(3): 294-9.
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