title: Hepatitis C among former athletes: association with the use of injectable stimulants in the past.
abstract: This study was performed with the purpose of testing the hypothesis that the high prevalence of hepatitis C among former athletes is associated with their past use of injectable stimulants. The study involved the participation of 208 former professional and amateur soccer and basketball players from the region of Ribeirão Preto, Brazil, who answered a questionnaire regarding their exposure to risk factors, including the use of injectable stimulants in the time they were engaged in sporting activities. ELISA tests were used to detect infection by the hepatitis C virus, and confirmed with PCR and genotyping for the positive cases. It was observed that the former use of injectable stimulants was a practice disseminated among the participants (24.5%), reaching 50.8% in the professionals. The overall prevalence for hepatitis C was 7.2%, with values of 11% among professionals and 5.5% among amateurs. In both categories, the presence of infection was markedly higher among those who admitted past use of injectable stimulants when compared to those who denied such practice (36% and 0.8% among amateurs; 21.9% and 0% among professionals, respectively). Multivariate analysis showed that the use of those substances was the only variable associated with the risk of hepatitis C. This confirms previous observations, performed with reduced sample sizes and without comparison groups, which indicated that the use of injectable vitamins was a risk factor of hepatitis C among former athletes.
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Medicina Social, Faculdade de Medicina de Ribeirão Preto, Universidade de São Paulo, Ribeirão Preto, SP, Brasil. apassos@fmrp.usp.br
authors.forename: Afonso Dinis Costa
authors.initials: AD
authors.lastname: Passos
authors.forename: José Fernando de Castro
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Figueiredo
authors.forename: Ana de Lourdes Candolo
authors.initials: Ade L
authors.lastname: Martinelli
authors.forename: Marcia
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Villanova
authors.forename: Margarida Maria Pásseri do
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Nascimento
authors.forename: Marie
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Secaf
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001490:Basketball / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D001938:Brazil / Q000453:epidemiology; D000697:Central Nervous System Stimulants / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; D016174:Hepacivirus / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology; D006526:Hepatitis C / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000635:transmission*; D018937:Hepatitis C Antibodies / Q000097:blood; D006801:Humans; D007275:Injections, Intravenous / Q000009:adverse effects; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D015995:Prevalence; D012307:Risk Factors; D012916:Soccer / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*
chemical_list: D000697:Central Nervous System Stimulants; D018937:Hepatitis C Antibodies