Prison Health Services, Vanajantie 10 B, Hämeenlinna, Finland.
J Infect. 2011 Jan;62(1):59-66. doi: 10.1016/j.jinf.2010.10.011. Epub 2010 Nov 16.
Previous prison studies have shown that the female gender is associated with higher hepatitis C prevalence. However, there are few prison studies of gender differences concerning the risk factors of hepatitis C infections. We studied the prevalence of hepatitis and HIV infections and the risk factors among Finnish female prisoners.
The material consisted of 88 females and 300 male prisoners as controls.
The prevalence of hepatitis C virus antibodies was 52%, hepatitis B surface antigen 0%, hepatitis A virus antibodies 38% and HIV antibodies 1% among women, and 44%, 0.7%, 4% and 0.7% respectively among men. Among women, 71% of the age group 16-24 had HCV. There was no significant association between gender and HCV. Women were more commonly sharing syringes/needles and had unsafe sexual habits. Among women, HCV was associated only with IDU and syringe/needle sharing whereas among men also with tattoos, cumulative years in prison and age.
Especially young females had a high prevalence of HCV. The study showed that the risk factors are differentiated by gender. This should be taken into account when assessing earlier studies which mainly concentrate on men.
以往的监狱研究表明，女性的丙型肝炎患病率较高。然而，关于丙型肝炎感染风险因素的监狱性别差异研究较少。我们研究了芬兰女性囚犯中肝炎和 HIV 感染的流行情况及其危险因素。
该材料包括 88 名女性囚犯和 300 名男性囚犯作为对照。
女性中丙型肝炎病毒抗体的流行率为 52%，乙型肝炎表面抗原为 0%，甲型肝炎病毒抗体为 38%，HIV 抗体为 1%，而男性中分别为 44%、0.7%、4%和 0.7%。在年龄组 16-24 岁的女性中，有 71%的人患有 HCV。性别与 HCV 之间没有显著关联。女性更常见共用注射器/针头，并有不安全的性行为。在女性中，HCV 仅与 IDU 和共用注射器/针头有关，而在男性中还与纹身、入狱累计年数和年龄有关。
特别是年轻女性 HCV 的患病率很高。研究表明，风险因素因性别而异。在评估主要关注男性的早期研究时，应考虑到这一点。
