Risk Factors for Hepatitis C Virus among Urban/Rural Settings of Patients Visiting Tertiary Care Hospitals at Lahore, Pakistan

Abstract

The prevalence of hepatitis C is increasing day by day all over the world. Most particularly in Pakistan hundreds of thousands people are dying by acquisition of HCV virus. There is no vaccine available and its treatment is very expensive. Hence, we being the under-developed country, solely have a blatant option regarding accurate determination of risk factors in our community to minimize economic strain and scheming for better prevention strategies. The need of the day is to conduct such types of studies on immediate basis. Main objective of this study is to find out associated factors with hepatitis C through the parsimonious Logistic Regression Model for urban/rural patients separately. A cross sectional survey from 400 patients was conducted on self-designed questionnaire from three major hospitals of Lahore. Further cases and controls were classified for urban and rural populations separately to analyze comparison of risk factors. Urban Logistic Regression Model depicts that ever-married patients, patients having un-educated mother, family history of hepatitis, surgical operations and road accidents are independent risk factors with hepatitis C. While in rural model patients' age, patient history of jaundice, and shaving by barber has been pragmatically different. Ever-married patients and family history of hepatitis are the common factors in both populations just mentioned. Risk of hepatitis C is found to be highest in urban ever-married patients. It is concluded that some risk factors for the transmission of HCV are different in urban and rural areas. Moreover, in Pakistan, this study revealed that the road accident is newly found vital risk factor in urban areas. Finally, our Logit Models can be used for the prediction of hepatitis C in both urban/rural settings of patients.