title: Impact of race/ethnicity and gender on HCV screening and prevalence among U.S. veterans in Department of Veterans Affairs Care.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  We assessed HCV screening and prevalence among veterans and estimated the potential impact of complete birth cohort screening, accounting for the disparate HCV disease burden by race/ethnicity and gender.
  
  
  METHODS
  We used the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Corporate Data Warehouse to identify birth dates, gender, race/ethnicity, and laboratory tests for veterans with at least 1 VA outpatient visit in 2012. We calculated HCV screening rates, prevalence, and HCV infection incident diagnosis.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Among 5,499,743 veterans, 54.7% had HCV screening through the VA. In more than 2.9 million veterans screened, HCV prevalence was 6.1% overall and highest among Blacks (11.8%), particularly Black men born in 1945 to 1965 (17.7%). HCV infection incident diagnosis in 2012 was 5.9% for men and 2.3% for women. An estimated additional 48,928 male veterans, including 12,291 Black men, and 1484 female veterans would potentially be identified as HCV infected with full birth cohort screening.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  HCV prevalence was markedly elevated among veterans born in 1945 to 1965, with substantial variation by race/ethnicity and gender. Full adoption of birth cohort screening may reveal substantial numbers of veterans with previously unknown HCV infection.
authors.affiliation: Lisa I. Backus, Pamela S. Belperio, Timothy P. Loomis, and Larry A. Mole are with the Department of Veterans Affairs, Office of Public Health/Population Health, Washington, DC. Lisa Backus is also with the Department of Medicine, VA Palo Alto Health Care System, Palo Alto, CA. Pamela S. Belperio is also with the Department of Pharmacy, VA Greater Los Angeles Health Care System, Los Angeles, CA.
authors.forename: Lisa I
authors.initials: LI
authors.lastname: Backus
authors.forename: Pamela S
authors.initials: PS
authors.lastname: Belperio
authors.forename: Timothy P
authors.initials: TP
authors.lastname: Loomis
authors.forename: Larry A
authors.initials: LA
authors.lastname: Mole
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D005006:Ethnicity / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D006526:Hepatitis C / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000208:ethnology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008403:Mass Screening; D015995:Prevalence; D044469:Racial Groups / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012737:Sex Factors; D014481:United States; D014493:United States Department of Veterans Affairs / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D014728:Veterans / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D058014:Veterans Health
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