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Benzodiazepine Use and Hepatitis C Seroconversion in a Cohort of Persons Who Inject Drugs
Paxton Bach1, Geoffrey Walton1, Kanna Hayashi1
1Paxton Bach, Geoffrey Walton, M-J Milloy, Thomas Kerr, Julio Montaner, and Evan Wood are with the Department of Medicine, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada. Kanna Hayashi, Huiru Dong, Thomas Kerr, Julio Montaner, and Evan Wood are with the British Columbia Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS, St. Paul's Hospital, Vancouver, Canada.
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.
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