British Columbia Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS, Division of AIDS, Department of Medicine, University of British Columbia, St Paul's Hospital, 608-1081 Burrard St, Vancouver, BC V6Z 1Y6, Canada. kshannon@cfenet.ubc.ca
To examine whether there were differential rates of hepatitis C virus (HCV) incidence in injecting drug-using youths who did and did not report involvement in survival sex work.
Data were derived from 2 prospective cohort studies of injecting drug users (May 1, 1996, to July 31, 2007). Analyses were restricted to HCV antibody-negative youths who completed baseline and at least 1 follow-up assessment.
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
Of 3074 injecting drug users, 364 (11.8%) were youths (aged 14-24 years) with a median age of 21.3 years and a duration of injecting drug use of 3 years. Main Exposure Survival sex work involvement.
The Kaplan-Meier method and Cox proportional hazards regression were used to compare HCV incidence among youths who did and did not report survival sex work.
Baseline HCV prevalence was 51%, with youths involved in survival sex work significantly more likely to be HCV antibody positive (60% vs 44%; P = .002). In baseline HCV antibody-negative youths, the cumulative HCV incidence at 36 months was significantly higher in those involved in survival sex work (68.4% vs 38.8%; P