PMID- 31937278
OWN - NLM
STAT- MEDLINE
DCOM- 20200413
LR  - 20200413
IS  - 1471-2458 (Electronic)
IS  - 1471-2458 (Linking)
VI  - 20
IP  - 1
DP  - 2020 Jan 14
TI  - A systematic review and meta-analysis of the prevalence of hepatitis C virus 
      infection in people who inject drugs in Iran.
PG  - 62
LID - 10.1186/s12889-020-8175-1 [doi]
LID - 62
AB  - BACKGROUND: Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is one of the major public health 
      challenges generating a relevant burden. High-risk groups, including people who 
      inject drugs (PWID), are at serious risk for developing HCV. In recent years, 
      several investigations have been conducted in Iran to assess the prevalence e of 
      HCV among PWID. The aim of the present study was to synthesize the literature 
      performing a comprehensive search and meta-analysis. METHODS: A comprehensive 
      literature search was carried out from January 2000 to September 2019. Several 
      international databases, namely Scopus, PubMed/MEDLINE, Embase, ISI/Web of 
      Science, PsycINFO, CINAHL, the Cochrane Library and the Directory of Open Access 
      Journals (DOAJ), as well as Iranian databases (Barakathns, SID and MagIran), were 
      consulted. Eligible studies were identified according to the following PECOS 
      (population, exposure, comparison/comparator, outcome and study type) criteria: 
      i) population: Iranian population; ii) exposure: injection drug users; iii) 
      comparison/comparator: type of substance injected and level of substance use, iv) 
      outcome: HCV prevalence; and v) study type: cross-sectional study. After finding 
      potentially related studies, authors extracted relevant data and information 
      based on an ad hoc Excel spreadsheet. Extracted data included the surname of the 
      first author, the study journal, the year of publication, the number of 
      participants examined, the type of diagnostic test performed, the number of 
      positive HCV patients, the number of participants stratified by gender, the 
      reported prevalence, the duration of drug injection practice and the history of 
      using a shared syringe. RESULTS: Forty-two studies were included. 15,072 PWID 
      were assessed for determining the prevalence of HCV. The overall prevalence of 
      HCV among PWID in Iran was computed to be 47% (CI 95: 39-56). The prevalence 
      ranged between 7 and 96%. Men and subjects using a common/shared syringe were 
      1.46 and 3.95 times more likely to be at risk, respectively. CONCLUSION: The 
      findings of the present study showed that the prevalence of HCV among PWIDs in 
      Iran is high. The support and implementation of ad hoc health-related policies 
      and programs that reduce this should be put into action.
FAU - Behzadifar, Masoud
AU  - Behzadifar M
AD  - Social Determinants of Health Research Center, Lorestan University of Medical 
      Sciences, Khorramabad, Iran.
FAU - Behzadifar, Meysam
AU  - Behzadifar M
AUID- ORCID: 0000-0002-7005-9986
AD  - Health Management and Economics Research Center, Iran University of Medical 
      Sciences, Tehran, Iran. m_behzadifar67@yahoo.com.
FAU - Bragazzi, Nicola Luigi
AU  - Bragazzi NL
AD  - School of Public Health, Department of Health Sciences (DISSAL), University of 
      Genoa, Genoa, Italy.
LA  - eng
PT  - Journal Article
PT  - Meta-Analysis
PT  - Systematic Review
DEP - 20200114
PL  - England
TA  - BMC Public Health
JT  - BMC public health
JID - 100968562
SB  - IM
MH  - Databases, Factual
MH  - Drug Users/*statistics & numerical data
MH  - Hepatitis C/*epidemiology
MH  - Humans
MH  - Iran/epidemiology
MH  - Prevalence
PMC - PMC6961327
OTO - NOTNLM
OT  - Harm reduction policies
OT  - Health management
OT  - Hepatitis C virus
OT  - Iran
OT  - Meta-analysis
COIS- The authors declare that they have no competing interests.
EDAT- 2020/01/16 06:00
MHDA- 2020/04/14 06:00
PMCR- 2020/01/14
CRDT- 2020/01/16 06:00
PHST- 2019/12/03 00:00 [received]
PHST- 2020/01/08 00:00 [accepted]
PHST- 2020/01/16 06:00 [entrez]
PHST- 2020/01/16 06:00 [pubmed]
PHST- 2020/04/14 06:00 [medline]
PHST- 2020/01/14 00:00 [pmc-release]
AID - 10.1186/s12889-020-8175-1 [pii]
AID - 8175 [pii]
AID - 10.1186/s12889-020-8175-1 [doi]
PST - epublish
SO  - BMC Public Health. 2020 Jan 14;20(1):62. doi: 10.1186/s12889-020-8175-1.