Abstract
BackgroundHepatitis C is an important public health problem about which there is currently scarce epidemiological information. The objective of this study is to describe and analyse the demographic and epidemiological characteristics of hospitalized cases of hepatitis C in the Spanish population between 2004 and 2013.MethodsThe study uses the Hospital Discharge Records Database of the Spanish National Health System. It is a retrospective descriptive epidemiological study. The variables analysed were year of infection, age, sex, diagnostic category, days admitted and co-morbidity.ResultsThere have been a total of 351,996 hospitalizations; 225,138 men (64%) and 126,858 women (36%). They are divided between acute hepatitis 8161 (2.3%); chronic hepatitis 325,185 (92.4%) and unspecified hepatitis 18,650 (5.3%). The mean age for men is 53.7 (+/−15.2) and for women 62.3 (+/−17.3). 22.8% also present with an Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) disease coinfection, and 14.7% with opioid dependencies. The trend is for a gradual increase in cases without statistical significance.ConclusionsThe Hepatitis C cases hospitalized had high levels of chronicity, which entails two distinct patterns of illness in men and women – who are affected in different age ranges.
Highlights
Hepatitis C is an important public health problem about which there is currently scarce epidemiological information
Despite the fact that hepatitis C is a disease of particular relevance to public health, the epidemiological information available remains scarce
The objective of this study is to describe and analyse the demographic and epidemiological characteristics of those cases hospitalized with a diagnosis of hepatitis C and in addition to identifying trends in the hospitalizations
Summary
Hepatitis C is an important public health problem about which there is currently scarce epidemiological information. The objective of this study is to describe and analyse the demographic and epidemiological characteristics of hospitalized cases of hepatitis C in the Spanish population between 2004 and 2013. Despite the fact that hepatitis C is a disease of particular relevance to public health, the epidemiological information available remains scarce. This, in part, is due to the intrinsic characteristics of a disease which is difficult to diagnose, remains asymptomatic for many years and becomes chronic in a high percentage of cases. It is estimated that hepatitis C affects 150 million people globally, of which 350,000 to 500,000 die each year as a result. A number of studies have been undertaken in Spain to
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