Department of Biostatistics, Epidemiology, and Informatics, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, United States of America.
Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, United States of America.
PLoS One. 2021 Oct 5;16(10):e0258143. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0258143. eCollection 2021.
Most patients with hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection perceive some degree of disease-related stigma. Misunderstandings about diseases may contribute to disease-related stigma. The objective of this study was to evaluate patient-level knowledge about HCV infection transmission and natural history and its association with HCV-related stigma among HCV-infected patients. We conducted a cross-sectional survey study among 265 patients with HCV in Philadelphia using the HCV Stigma Scale and the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) Hepatitis C Follow-up Survey (2001-2008). The association between HCV knowledge and HCV-related stigma was evaluated via linear regression. Overall knowledge about HCV transmission and natural history was high, with >80% of participants answering ≥9 of 11 items correctly (median number of correct responses, 9 [82%]), HCV-related knowledge was similar between HIV/HCV-coinfected and HCV-monoinfected participants (p = 0.30). A higher level of HCV-related knowledge was associated with greater perceived HCV-related stigma (β, 2.34 ([95% CI, 0.51-4.17]; p = 0.013). Results were similar after adjusting for age, race, ethnicity, HIV status, education level, stage of HCV management, time since diagnosis, and history of injection drug use. In this study, increased HCV-related knowledge was associated with greater perceptions of HCV stigma. Clinicians may consider allotting time to address common misconceptions about HCV when educating patients about HCV infection, which may counterbalance the stigmatizing impact of greater HCV-related knowledge.
大多数丙型肝炎病毒 (HCV) 感染者都能感受到某种程度的与疾病相关的耻辱感。对疾病的误解可能导致与疾病相关的耻辱感。本研究的目的是评估 HCV 感染患者对 HCV 传播和自然史的个体认知水平及其与 HCV 相关耻辱感的关系。我们对费城的 265 名 HCV 感染者进行了一项横断面调查研究，使用 HCV 耻辱量表和全国健康和营养检查调查 (NHANES) HCV 随访调查 (2001-2008)。通过线性回归评估 HCV 知识与 HCV 相关耻辱感之间的关联。总体而言，对 HCV 传播和自然史的了解程度较高，超过 80%的参与者答对了 11 个问题中的 9 个或以上（中位数答对的问题数为 9 [82%]），HIV/HCV 合并感染和 HCV 单感染患者之间的 HCV 相关知识相似（p = 0.30）。较高的 HCV 相关知识水平与更大的 HCV 相关耻辱感感知相关（β，2.34 [95%CI，0.51-4.17]；p = 0.013）。调整年龄、种族、民族、HIV 状态、教育水平、HCV 管理阶段、诊断后时间和注射吸毒史后，结果相似。在这项研究中，增加的 HCV 相关知识与更大的 HCV 耻辱感感知相关。临床医生在向 HCV 感染者讲授 HCV 感染时，可能会考虑留出时间来解决对 HCV 的常见误解，这可能会抵消对 HCV 相关知识增加的耻辱感的负面影响。
