TABLE 2.

Baseline characteristics of 9117 participants of NHANES III aged 18–59 years, by anti-HCV and HCV RNA status

Characteristica	Anti-HCV negative	Anti-HCV positive (RNA positive and negative)		Anti-HCV positive and HCV RNA positive (chronic HCV)
	N=8866	N=251	P-value*	N=203	P-value*
Age (y), mean	36.4 (0.2)	36.4 (0.9)	.99	36.9 (1.0)	.69
Female, %	52.1 (0.6)	31.0 (4.1)	<.001	29.0 (5.2)	<.001
Race/ethnicity, %
Non-Hispanic White	76.0 (1.4)	66.8 (4.8)	.006	63.9 (5.9)	.006
Non-Hispanic Black	10.6 (0.7)	18.2 (2.4)		20.4 (3.2)
Mexican American	10.2 (1.0)	11.2 (2.6)		10.6 (2.5)
Other	3.2 (0.4)	3.9 (2.2)		5.0 (2.8)
Married, %	62.3 (1.1)	40.3 (4.5)	<.001	38.1 (4.7)	<.001
Non-high school graduate, %	18.4 (1.1)	39.8 (4.3)	<.001	37.5 (4.5)	<.001
Current smoker, %	30.7 (1.0)	64.2 (5.5)	<.001	69.9 (6.2)	<.001
Poverty income ratio, mean	3.18 (0.1)	2.0 (0.2)	<.001	1.8 (0.2)	<.001
Lifetime no. of sex partners, %
0–1	23.7 (0.8)	5.4 (1.5)	<.001	4.0 (1.7)	<.001
2–9	48.0 (0.9)	33.1 (5.2)		37.7 (5.9)
10–49	23.9 (1.0)	43.5 (5.4)		41.6 (5.9)
≥50	4.3 (0.5)	18.0 (3.2)		16.6 (0.3)
Lifetime cocaine use, %
Never	87.0 (0.8)	40.7 (5.6)	<.001	39.1 (6.5)	<.001
1–10	7.9 (0.6)	17.3 (4.8)		14.5 (4.2)
>10	5.5 (0.5)	42.0 (6.4)		46.4 (7.2)
Lifetime marijuana use, %
Never	55.2 (1.3)	20.3 (3.8)	<.001	18.8 (4.3)	<.001
1–99 times	33.2 (1.0)	27.2 (4.0)		28.0 (4.5)
≥100	11.5 (0.6)	52.5 (5.1)		53.2 (6.1)
Alcohol consumption, %
<1 drinks/day	91.9 (0.5)	77.4 (5.6)	.11	72.8 (6.5)	.08
1–2 drinks/day	7.1 (0.4)	15.8 (4.4)		19.2 (5.6)
>2 drinks/day	1.9 (0.2)	6.8 (4.7)		8.1 (6.0)
ALT (U/L), mean	18.0 (0.4)	38.4 (2.2)	<.001	44.2 (3.0)	<.001
Body mass index (kg/m2), mean	26.3 (0.1)	25.6 (0.5)	.18	25.5 (0.6)	.20
Total bilirubin (mg/dL), mean	10.7 (0.1)	10.7 (0.6)	.86	11 (0.8)	.70

^aMean (standard error) or % (standard error).

^*Wald χ² or t test.