Dataset Information

Time-to-hepatitis C treatment initiation among people who inject drugs in Melbourne, Australia.

ABSTRACT: This study aims to understand the time-to-treatment initiation pre and post DAA access to inform strategies to improve HCV care. The data for our study were derived from the SuperMIX cohort study of people who inject drugs in Melbourne, Australia. Time-to-event analysis using Weibull accelerated failure time was performed for data collected between 2009 and 2021, among a cohort of HCV-positive participants. Among 223 participants who tested positive for active hepatitis C infection, 102 people (45.7%) reported treatment initiation, with a median time-to-treatment of 7 years. However, the median time-to-treatment reduced to 2.3 years for those tested positive after 2016. The study found that treatment with Opioid Agonist Therapy (TR 0.7, 95% CI 0.6-0.9), engagement with health or social services (TR 0.7, 95% CI 0.6-0.9), and having a first positive HCV RNA test after March 2016 (TR 0.3, 95% CI 0.2-0.3) were associated with a reduced time-to-treatment initiation. The study highlights the need for strategies to improve engagement with health services, including drug treatment services into routine HCV care to achieve timely treatment.

SUBMITTER: Aung PTZ

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10226186 | biostudies-literature | 2023 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Time-to-hepatitis C treatment initiation among people who inject drugs in Melbourne, Australia.

Aung Phyo T Z PTZ Spelman Tim T Wilkinson Anna L AL Dietze Paul M PM Stoové Mark A MA Hellard Margaret E ME

Epidemiology and infection 20230509

This study aims to understand the time-to-treatment initiation pre and post DAA access to inform strategies to improve HCV care. The data for our study were derived from the SuperMIX cohort study of people who inject drugs in Melbourne, Australia. Time-to-event analysis using Weibull accelerated failure time was performed for data collected between 2009 and 2021, among a cohort of HCV-positive participants. Among 223 participants who tested positive for active hepatitis C infection, 102 people ( ...[more]

PMID: 37157844

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Project description:ObjectivesDirect-acting antivirals provide an opportunity to eliminate hepatitis C virus (HCV) as a public health threat in Australia, yet barriers to care remain. In this study, we use baseline data from a longitudinal cohort of people who inject drugs to understand differences in participant characteristics and explore experiences of stigma, health service utilisation and health literacy between three care cascade groups.DesignCross-sectional.SettingCommunity and private primary healthcare services in Melbourne, Australia.ParticipantsParticipants completed baseline surveys between 19 September 2018 and 15 December 2020. We recruited 288 participants; the median age was 42 years (IQR: 37-49 years) and 198 (69%) were male. At baseline, 103 (36%) self-reported being 'not engaged in testing', 127 (44%) had HCV RNA positivity but were 'not engaged in treatment' and 58 (20%) were 'engaged in HCV treatment'.Outcome measuresDescriptive statistics were used to present the baseline demographics, health service utilisation and experiences of stigma data. We explored differences in these scales between participant demographics using χ2 test or fisher's exact tests, and differences between health literacy scores using one-way analysis of variance tests.ResultsA majority were in regular contact with multiple health services, and most had previously been identified as at-risk of HCV. In the 12 months preceding baseline, 70% reported any experiences of stigma related to injecting drug use. Assessment of health literacy data identified gaps for those 'not engaged in testing' and 'not engaged in treatment' across two relevant domains: 'ability to appraise health information' and 'ability to actively engage with healthcare providers'.ConclusionIn eliminate hepatitis C experience, lower HCV testing and treatment may be explained by experiences of stigmatisation or gaps in health literacy. Enhanced interventions targeting people who inject drugs to promote HCV care are needed.

Project description:Hepatitis C virus (HCV) chronically infects over 180 million people worldwide, with over 350,000 estimated deaths attributed yearly to HCV-related liver diseases. It disproportionally affects people who inject drugs (PWID). Currently there is no preventative vaccine and interventions feature long treatment durations with severe side-effects. Upcoming treatments will improve this situation, making possible large-scale treatment interventions. How these strategies should target HCV-infected PWID remains an important unanswered question. Previous models of HCV have lacked empirically grounded contact models of PWID. Here we report results on HCV transmission and treatment using simulated contact networks generated from an empirically grounded network model using recently developed statistical approaches in social network analysis. Our HCV transmission model is a detailed, stochastic, individual-based model including spontaneously clearing nodes. On transmission we investigate the role of number of contacts and injecting frequency on time to primary infection and the role of spontaneously clearing nodes on incidence rates. On treatment we investigate the effect of nine network-based treatment strategies on chronic prevalence and incidence rates of primary infection and re-infection. Both numbers of contacts and injecting frequency play key roles in reducing time to primary infection. The change from "less-" to "more-frequent" injector is roughly similar to having one additional network contact. Nodes that spontaneously clear their HCV infection have a local effect on infection risk and the total number of such nodes (but not their locations) has a network wide effect on the incidence of both primary and re-infection with HCV. Re-infection plays a large role in the effectiveness of treatment interventions. Strategies that choose PWID and treat all their contacts (analogous to ring vaccination) are most effective in reducing the incidence rates of re-infection and combined infection. A strategy targeting infected PWID with the most contacts (analogous to targeted vaccination) is the least effective.

Dataset Information

Time-to-hepatitis C treatment initiation among people who inject drugs in Melbourne, Australia.

Publications

Time-to-hepatitis C treatment initiation among people who inject drugs in Melbourne, Australia.

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