Mental and physical symptoms associated with lower social support for patients with hepatitis C

Table 1 Demographic and clinical characteristics of the study population

Patient characteristics	n (%) of total study population
Demographic characteristics
Mean age in years (SD)	45.2 (9.2)
Women	128 (37.4)
Racial/ethnic background
White	310 (90.6)
Black	19 (5.6)
Other1	13 (3.8)
Marital status
Living with partner	212 (62.0)
Living alone	130 (38.0)
Education
K-12	137 (40.1)
College	205 (59.5)
Employment prior to diagnosis
Employed	296 (90.0)
Unemployed	33 (10.0)
Current employment
Employed	217 (65.0)
Unemployed	117 (35.0)
Population of hometown
Rural	220 (64.3)
Urban	122 (35.7)
Interview to treatment status
Before	32 (9.4)
During	93 (27.2)
After	94 (27.5)
Naïve	123 (36.0)
Clinical characteristics
Current substance use
Yes	24 (7.0)
Total psychiatric diagnosis
0	251 (73.6)
1	74 (21.7)
2	14 (4.1)
3-5	2 (0.6)
Advanced liver disease (cirrhosis)	81 (23.8)
HCV due to IV drugs	177 (62.3)
HCV due to other methods of transmission	107 (37.7)
Mean Child-Pugh score (SD)	5.46 (1.2)

SD: Standard Deviation; HCV: Hepatitis C virus; IV: Intravenous.

¹Other ethnicity includes Hispanic, Native American, Asian and Pacific Islander.