However, with the regimen requirements and severity of adverse effects typically accompanying interferon-based anti-HCV therapy, this benefit is limited

to HCV-infected individuals who could be candidates for antiviral treatment. To better understand how health insurance status may affect antiviral treatment rates, we further selected only those HCV patients who could potentially be candidates for the current standard of care HCV therapy (pegylated interferon/ribavirin). Eligibility criteria assumed absence of history of important comorbid conditions or active chronic diseases and included history of ischemic heart disease, congestive heart failure, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, stroke, cancer, or kidney failure. Treatment exclusion criteria also included individuals with severe INCB024360 depression or uncontrolled diabetes (defined as glycohemoglobin ≥9%). The Hepatitis C follow-up questionnaire was completed only by a small portion of HCV+ individuals, hence we did not include the history of previous unsuccessful treatment in our eligibility criteria. Health insurance coverage as well as medical, demographic, and social variables selleck kinase inhibitor were compared between HCV+ subjects and HCV− controls without chronic liver disease using. HCV+

individuals with health insurance were further compared with those without health insurance coverage. The proportions of HCV+ subjects who were potential treatment candidates were then calculated, and

we compared these proportions between HCV+ subjects with and without health insurance. Finally, insured and uninsured HCV+ individuals who could be treatment candidates were compared with each other, and then the same analysis was also repeated for the HCV+ treatment candidates from insurance group 1 and insurance group 2 separately; these groups were then compared with their uninsured counterparts. We used a logistic regression analysis to identify independent predictors of insurance status in the general United States population, and to study independent predictors of insurability Cell press among HCV+ individuals. Sampling errors were calculated using the Taylor linearization method, and the stratum-specific chi-square test for independence was used for pairwise comparisons. Sampling weights recommended by National Center for Health Statistics guidelines for each questionnaire and laboratory parameter were used to account for nonresponse and unequal selection probabilities for certain categories of population. Stratification and sampling units describing the design stages of the NHANES data collection were also used to account for the complex, multistage probability sample design of these data. According to the 2005 NHANES Analytic and Reporting Guidelines,16 when merging two analytic cycles, a 50% adjustment coefficient was applied to all provided sampling weights. All analyses were run using standalone SUDAAN 10.0 (SAS Institute Inc., Cary, NC).