Factors influencing a low rate of hepatitis C viral RNA clearance in heroin users from Southern China

Table 1 Characteristics of consecutively HCV ELISA positive heroin users from Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China

	Number (%)
	HCV RNA
	(+)	(-)	Total
	317 (91.35)	30 (8.65)	347
Factor
Location
Binyang	200	20	220
Pingxiang	117	10	127
Mean age (yr)
Mean ± SD	27.5 ± 5.7	25.4 ± 4.52	27.4 ± 5.6
Range	(19-50)	(19-37)	(19-50)
Gender
Male	307 (96.85)	27 (90.00)	334 (96.25)
Female	10 (3.15)	3 (10.00)	13 (3.75)
Ethnicity
Han	212 (66.88)	20 (66.67)	232 (66.86)
Zhuang	94 (29.65)	7 (23.3)	101 (29.11)
Other	11 (3.47)	3 (10.0)	14 (4.03)
Marital status
Single	215 (67.82)	21 (70.00)	236 (68.01)
Married	102 (32.18)	9 (30.00)	111 (31.99)
HIV Ab status
Positive	87 (27.44)	3 (10.00)	90 (25.94)
HBsAg status
Positive	32 (10.09)	14 (46.67)	46 (13.26)
HBsAb status
Positive	142 (44.79)	6 (20.00)	148 (42.65)
Injection drug use
Yes	294 (92.74)	29 (96.67)	323 (93.08)
Mean length of drug use
Months ± SD	63.7 ± 26.4	54.72 ± 28.2	62.9 ± 26.6
Range	(9.0-165.2)	(13.1-124.2)	(9.0-165.2)
Mean frequency of drug use
Per Month ± SD	73.9 ± 44.7	79.6 ± 34.6	74.4 ± 44.0
Range	(1.0-390.0)	(20.0-150.0)	(1.0-390.0)
Education level
College or above	1 (0.32)	0	1 (0.29)
High school	26 (8.25)	2 (6.9)	28 (8.14)
Middle school	151 (47.94)	12 (41.38)	163 (47.38)
Primary school	133 (42.22)	15 (51.72)	148 (43.02)
Illiterate	4 (1.27)	0	4 (1.16)
Unknown	2	1	3 (0.86)

SD: Standard deviation; HCV: Hepatitis C virus; HIVAb: HIV-1 antibody; HBsAg: Hepatitis B surface antigen; HBsAb: Antibody to hepatitis B surface antigen.