| Autor: |
Morrow RL; British Columbia Centre for Disease Control, Vancouver, BC V5Z 4R4, Canada.; School of Population and Public Health, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z3, Canada., Binka M; British Columbia Centre for Disease Control, Vancouver, BC V5Z 4R4, Canada.; School of Population and Public Health, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z3, Canada., Li J; British Columbia Centre for Disease Control, Vancouver, BC V5Z 4R4, Canada., Irvine M; British Columbia Centre for Disease Control, Vancouver, BC V5Z 4R4, Canada.; Faculty of Health Sciences, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC V5A 1S6, Canada., Bartlett SR; British Columbia Centre for Disease Control, Vancouver, BC V5Z 4R4, Canada.; School of Population and Public Health, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z3, Canada., Wong S; British Columbia Centre for Disease Control, Vancouver, BC V5Z 4R4, Canada., Jeong D; British Columbia Centre for Disease Control, Vancouver, BC V5Z 4R4, Canada.; School of Population and Public Health, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z3, Canada., Makuza JD; British Columbia Centre for Disease Control, Vancouver, BC V5Z 4R4, Canada.; School of Population and Public Health, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z3, Canada., Wong J; British Columbia Centre for Disease Control, Vancouver, BC V5Z 4R4, Canada.; School of Population and Public Health, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z3, Canada., Yu A; British Columbia Centre for Disease Control, Vancouver, BC V5Z 4R4, Canada., Krajden M; British Columbia Centre for Disease Control, Vancouver, BC V5Z 4R4, Canada.; Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z4, Canada., Janjua NZ; British Columbia Centre for Disease Control, Vancouver, BC V5Z 4R4, Canada.; School of Population and Public Health, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z3, Canada.; Centre for Health Evaluation and Outcome Sciences, St Paul's Hospital, Vancouver, BC V6Z 1Y6, Canada. |
| Abstrakt: |
We investigated the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on hepatitis C (HCV) treatment initiation, including by birth cohort and injection drug use status, in British Columbia (BC), Canada. Using population data from the BC COVID-19 Cohort, we conducted interrupted time series analyses, estimating changes in HCV treatment initiation following the introduction of pandemic-related policies in March 2020. The study included a pre-policy period (April 2018 to March 2020) and three follow-up periods (April to December 2020, January to December 2021, and January to December 2022). The level of HCV treatment initiation decreased by 26% in April 2020 (rate ratio 0.74, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.60 to 0.91). Overall, no statistically significant difference in HCV treatment initiation occurred over the 2020 and 2021 post-policy periods, and an increase of 34.4% (95% CI 0.6 to 75.8) occurred in 2022 (equating to 321 additional people initiating treatment), relative to expectation. Decreases in HCV treatment initiation occurred in 2020 for people born between 1965 and 1974 (25.5%) and people who inject drugs (24.5%), relative to expectation. In summary, the pandemic was associated with short-term disruptions in HCV treatment initiation in BC, which were greater for people born 1965 to 1974 and people who inject drugs. |
