Risk factors associated with hepatitis C virus infection: population-based cross-sectional study, Paraná, 2007-2022.

OBJECTIVE: To analyze the association between hepatitis C virus antibody (anti-HCV) results and demographic characteristics and exposure categories among reported cases in adult individuals in municipalities of Paraná. METHODS: An analytical cross-sectional study was conducted using records from the Notifiable Diseases Information System (Sinan) for viral hepatitis. Analyses were performed using logistic regression. The lowest Akaike information criterion value was considered for the final model. RESULTS: were presented as prevalence ratios (PR) with 95% confidence intervals (95%CI), and p-values <0.05 were considered significant. RESULTS: The sample consisted of 32,829 cases, of which 35.4% had reactive anti-HCV results. The variables that showed statistically significant associations were: injecting drug use (PR 1.26; 95%CI 1.21; 1.33), blood transfusion (PR 1.20; 95%CI 1.16; 1.25), inhaled drug use (PR 1.13; 95% CI 1.09; 1.18), tattooing and piercing (PR 1.05; 95%CI 1.02; 1.08), and surgical treatment (PR 1.03; 95%CI 1.01; 1.05). Among protective factors, the following stood out: age group (PR 0.94; 95%CI 0.91; 0.96) and educational level (PR 0.97; 95%CI 0.95; 0.98). CONCLUSION: An association of anti-HCV with injecting and inhaled drug use, tattooing/piercing, and surgical treatment was evidenced. The findings reinforce the importance of early detection and risk stratification in addressing hepatitis C.