TY - JOUR
T1 - Cigarette Smoking in Persons Living with Hepatitis C
T2 - The National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), 1999-2014
AU - Kim, Ryung S.
AU - Weinberger, Andrea H.
AU - Chander, Geetanjali
AU - Sulkowski, Mark S.
AU - Norton, Brianna
AU - Shuter, Jonathan
N1 - Funding Information:
Funding: RSK and JS were supported in part by awards 1R01DA036445, 1R01CA192954, and 1R34DA037042 from the National Institutes of Health. RSK was also supported in part by the Brain Pool Program award (172S-1-3-196) from the Korean Federation of Science and Technology Societies. None of these sources were involved in the design, analysis, data interpretation, writing, or decision to publish the completed manuscript.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 Elsevier Inc.
PY - 2018/6
Y1 - 2018/6
N2 - Background: Cigarette smoking is common in persons living with hepatitis C (hepatitis C+), but national statistics on this harmful practice are lacking. A better understanding of smoking behaviors in hepatitis C+ individuals may help in the development of targeted treatment strategies. Methods: We extracted data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) between 1999 and 2014. Hepatitis C+ were compared with hepatitis C− adults in the entire sample and in the subset of current smokers. Measures included demographics, current smoking, cigarettes/day, nicotine dependence, other tobacco use, substance use, and medical and psychiatric comorbidities. Results: Complete smoking and hepatitis C virus (HCV) data were available for 39,472 (90.1%) of 43,793 adult participants in NHANES during the study years. Hepatitis C+ smoked at almost triple the rate of hepatitis C− adults (62.4% vs 22.9%), with no significant difference between hepatitis C+ men and women (64.5% vs 58.2%). Hepatitis C+ smokers were more likely to smoke daily than hepatitis C− smokers (87.5% vs 80.0%), but had similar levels of nicotine dependence. Hepatitis C+ smokers were more likely to be older (mean age: 47.1 vs 41.5 years), male (69.4% vs 54.4%), Black (21.2% vs 12.1%), less educated (any college: 31.8% vs 42.9%), poor (mean family monthly poverty index: 1.80 vs 2.47), uninsured (43.9% vs 30.4%), use drugs (cocaine: 11.1% vs 3.2%; heroin: 4.0% vs 0.6%), and be depressed (33.2% vs 13.5%). Multivariate analyses revealed significant associations of both hepatitis C infection and cigarette smoking with current depression and hypertension. Conclusions: There is a cigarette smoking epidemic embedded within the hepatitis C epidemic in the United States. The sociodemographic profile of hepatitis C+ smokers suggests that the implementation of effective tobacco treatment will be challenging. Thoughtful treatment strategies that are mindful of the unique characteristics of this group are needed.
AB - Background: Cigarette smoking is common in persons living with hepatitis C (hepatitis C+), but national statistics on this harmful practice are lacking. A better understanding of smoking behaviors in hepatitis C+ individuals may help in the development of targeted treatment strategies. Methods: We extracted data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) between 1999 and 2014. Hepatitis C+ were compared with hepatitis C− adults in the entire sample and in the subset of current smokers. Measures included demographics, current smoking, cigarettes/day, nicotine dependence, other tobacco use, substance use, and medical and psychiatric comorbidities. Results: Complete smoking and hepatitis C virus (HCV) data were available for 39,472 (90.1%) of 43,793 adult participants in NHANES during the study years. Hepatitis C+ smoked at almost triple the rate of hepatitis C− adults (62.4% vs 22.9%), with no significant difference between hepatitis C+ men and women (64.5% vs 58.2%). Hepatitis C+ smokers were more likely to smoke daily than hepatitis C− smokers (87.5% vs 80.0%), but had similar levels of nicotine dependence. Hepatitis C+ smokers were more likely to be older (mean age: 47.1 vs 41.5 years), male (69.4% vs 54.4%), Black (21.2% vs 12.1%), less educated (any college: 31.8% vs 42.9%), poor (mean family monthly poverty index: 1.80 vs 2.47), uninsured (43.9% vs 30.4%), use drugs (cocaine: 11.1% vs 3.2%; heroin: 4.0% vs 0.6%), and be depressed (33.2% vs 13.5%). Multivariate analyses revealed significant associations of both hepatitis C infection and cigarette smoking with current depression and hypertension. Conclusions: There is a cigarette smoking epidemic embedded within the hepatitis C epidemic in the United States. The sociodemographic profile of hepatitis C+ smokers suggests that the implementation of effective tobacco treatment will be challenging. Thoughtful treatment strategies that are mindful of the unique characteristics of this group are needed.
KW - Cigarette
KW - Hepatitis C
KW - Smoking
KW - Tobacco
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U2 - 10.1016/j.amjmed.2018.01.011
DO - 10.1016/j.amjmed.2018.01.011
M3 - Article
C2 - 29408018
AN - SCOPUS:85043507598
SN - 0002-9343
VL - 131
SP - 669
EP - 675
JO - American Journal of Medicine
JF - American Journal of Medicine
IS - 6
ER -