Hepatitis C among former athletes: association with the use of injectable stimulants in the past
Mem. Inst. Oswaldo Cruz
;
103(8): 809-812, Dec. 2008. tab
Article
in English
| LILACS
| ID: lil-502301
ABSTRACT
This study was performed with the purpose of testing the hypothesis that the high prevalence of hepatitis C among former athletes is associated with their past use of injectable stimulants. The study involved the participation of 208 former professional and amateur soccer and basketball players from the region of Ribeirão Preto, Brazil, who answered a questionnaire regarding their exposure to risk factors, including the use of injectable stimulants in the time they were engaged in sporting activities. ELISA tests were used to detect infection by the hepatitis C virus, and confirmed with PCR and genotyping for the positive cases. It was observed that the former use of injectable stimulants was a practice disseminated among the participants (24.5 percent), reaching 50.8 percent in the professionals. The overall prevalence for hepatitis C was 7.2 percent, with values of 11 percent among professionals and 5.5 percent among amateurs. In both categories, the presence of infection was markedly higher among those who admitted past use of injectable stimulants when compared to those who denied such practice (36 percent and 0.8 percent among amateurs; 21.9 percent and 0 percent among professionals, respectively). Multivariate analysis showed that the use of those substances was the only variable associated with the risk of hepatitis C. This confirms previous observations, performed with reduced sample sizes and without comparison groups, which indicated that the use of injectable vitamins was a risk factor of hepatitis C among former athletes.
Full text:
Available
Index:
LILACS (Americas)
Main subject:
Soccer
/
Basketball
/
Hepatitis C
/
Central Nervous System Stimulants
Type of study:
Diagnostic study
/
Etiology study
/
Prevalence study
/
Risk factors
Limits:
Adult
/
Aged
/
Humans
/
Male
Country/Region as subject:
South America
/
Brazil
Language:
English
Journal:
Mem. Inst. Oswaldo Cruz
Journal subject:
Tropical Medicine
/
Parasitology
Year:
2008
Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
Brazil
Institution/Affiliation country:
Universidade de São Paulo/BR
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