As. Rosman et al., ALCOHOLISM IS ASSOCIATED WITH HEPATITIS-C BUT NOT HEPATITIS-B IN AN URBAN-POPULATION, The American journal of gastroenterology, 91(3), 1996, pp. 498-505
Objectives: Previous studies have suggested an association of viral he
patitis with alcoholism, although the role of confounding risk factors
(e.g., i.v. drug use) has not been adequately excluded. We therefore
compared the seroprevalences of hepatitis B and C in alcoholic patient
s to that of a nonalcoholic control group. Methods: Hepatitis B surfac
e antigen, hepatitis B core antibody, hepatitis B surface antibody, an
d hepatitis C virus antibody testing (second generation ELISA and a co
nfirmatory recombinant immunoblot assay) was performed in 150 consecut
ive alcoholics admitted for detoxification and in 166 randomly selecte
d patients attending a general medical clinic who were screened for al
coholism. Results: Hepatitis B and C seropositivities in actively drin
king alcoholics were 49.3% and 35.3%, respectively, and were significa
ntly associated with a history of i.v. drug abuse. Out of 166 general
medicine clinic patients, 93 were classified as nonalcoholic (by both
self-report and collateral verification), 46 patients had a history of
alcoholism, and 27 were indeterminate. In the subgroup of patients wi
thout known viral hepatitis risk factors, there was no significant dif
ference in hepatitis B seropositivity among nonalcoholic general medic
ine clinic patients, alcoholic general medicine clinic patients, and a
lcoholic patients admitted for detoxification (22.1%, 30.3%, and 27.6%
, respectively). In contrast, anti-HCV recombinant immunoblot assay se
ropositivity in alcoholic patients admitted for detoxification without
risk factors was significantly greater than in nonalcoholic general m
edicine patients without risk factors (10 vs 0%, p < 0.01). Stepwise l
ogistic regression analysis revealed that alcoholism requiring detoxif
ication was a significant risk factor for hepatitis C but not for hepa
titis B seropositivity. Conclusions: The increased seroprevalence of h
epatitis C in actively drinking alcoholic patients without known risk
factors suggests that alcoholism, in some way, is a predisposing facto
r for HCV infection.