Table 1. Characteristics of persons in the national HCV diagnosis database whose records contained sufficient identifiers for record-linkage, and the HCV diagnosis date was no more than 1 year following the first mention of HCC, if any (data up to 31 December 2006; N=20 720).
| Variable | Group | N | (%) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sex | Male | 14 082 | (68.0) |
| Female | 6597 | (31.8) | |
| Not known | 41 | (0.2) | |
| Age at HCV diagnosis (years) | <30 | 8673 | (41.8) |
| 30–44 | 9320 | (45.0) | |
| 45+ | 4726 | (13.2) | |
| Period of HCV diagnosis | Pre-1996 | 3336 | (16.1) |
| 1996–2000 | 7939 | (38.5) | |
| 2001–2006 | 9445 | (45.6) | |
| Risk group | IDU | 12 560 | (60.6) |
| Non-IDU | 1581 | (7.6) | |
| Not known | 6579 | (31.8) | |
| Previous admission, alcohol-related | Yes | 6464 | (31.2) |
| No | 14 256 | (68.8) | |
| Previous admission with cirrhosis | Yes | 734 | (3.5) |
| No | 19 986 | (96.5) | |
| Previous admission with hepatitis B | Yes | 1166 | (5.6) |
| No | 19 554 | (94.4) |
HCV=hepatitis C virus; IDU=current/former injecting drug user. An alcohol-related admission is defined as hospitalisation with a discharge diagnosis code of at least one of the following: (ICD-10) Z72.1, F10, G31.2, G62.1, G72.1, I42.6, K29.2, T51.0, T51.9, K70.1-3, K86.0, Y90-1, R78.0, Z50.2, Z86.4, X45, X65, (ICD-9) 291, 303, 305, 357.5, 425.5, 535.3, 571.0-571.2, 790.3, E860.0, E860.9. Admission with cirrhosis is defined similarly as follows: (ICD-10) K70.3, K74.6, (ICD-9) 571.2, 571.5, and admission with hepatitis B is defined similarly as follows: (ICD-10) B16, B18.0, B18.1, (ICD-9) 070.2, 070.3.