Prevalence of hepatitis C virus infection in US Hispanic/Latino adults: results from the NHANES 2007-2010 and HCHS/SOL studies.

Prevalence of hepatitis C virus (HCV) antibody has been reported in Mexican Americans, but its prevalence in other US Hispanic/Latino groups is unknown. We studied 2 populations of US Hispanic/Latino adults; 3210 from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 2007-2010 and 11 964 from the Hispanic Community Health Study/Study of Latinos (HCHS/SOL). Age-standardized prevalence of HCV antibody was similar in NHANES 2007-2010 (1.5%) and HCHS/SOL (2.0%) but differed significantly by Hispanic/Latino background in HCHS/SOL (eg, 11.6% in Puerto Rican men vs 0.4% in South American men). These findings suggest that the HCV epidemic among US Hispanics/Latinos is heterogeneous.