Impact of hepatitis C virus infection on lifestyle.

AIM: To evaluate the impact of the diagnosis of hepatitis C infection on lifestyle habits such as smoking, drinking, sports activity and diet. METHODS: A self-administered, anonymous questionnaire was offered to out-patients with HCV infection consecutively attending three clinical centres in Italy. RESULTS: Of the 275 respondents, 62.2% (171) were male. Mean age was 51 (range 20-80) years. Overall, after the diagnosis of hepatitis C, 74.5% of drinkers had modified (giving up or reducing) alcohol consumption, 21.3% of smokers had modified their habits and 32.3% of subjects who reported sports activity had either stopped or reduced frequency of activity or chose a less fatiguing sport. Sixty-four percent of the respondents reported having modified their diet, most of them on physician's advice. CONCLUSION: After the diagnosis of hepatitis C many patients correctly modified their alcohol consumption and a minority their smoking habits. The reason for reported changes in diet and physical activity needs further investigations.

Use of pegylated interferons is associated with an increased incidence of infections during combination treatment of chronic hepatitis C: a side effect of pegylation?

Standard interferon treatment is known to increase the risk of infections; this risk also needs to be evaluated in clinical practice for pegylated interferon. To this end, we studied 255 patients treated with standard (103) or pegylated (152) interferon, in combination with ribavirin, for hepatitis C. Overall, 31 anti-hepatitis C virus treatment-related infections were observed. Neutropenia (neutrophil counts below 1x10(3) cells/ml) was observed in a significantly higher proportion of patients treated with pegylated interferons (48% vs 9%; P=0.0009). Of the 31 infections, eight were respiratory infections and were observed only in patients with neutropenia. None of the non-respiratory infections was observed in patients with neutropenia. Multivariate analysis, using Cox's proportional hazards regression model, found a higher risk of all infections associated with both use of pegylated interferons [hazard ratio (HR) 4.6] and neutropenia (HR 2.46). However, neutropenia was independently associated with acute respiratory infections only and use of pegylated interferons with non-respiratory infections. In summary, use of pegylated interferon appears to increase the risk of non-respiratory infections independently from neutropenia.