• Judith I Tsui, Richard Saitz, Debbie M Cheng, David Nunes, Howard Libman, Julie K Alperen, and Jeffrey H Samet.
• General Internal Medicine Section (111A1), San Francisco VA Medical Center, 4150 Clement St., San Francisco, CA 94121, USA. Judith.Tsui@ucsf.edu
• J Gen Intern Med. 2007 Jun 1; 22 (6): 822-5.

Background And ObjectiveIt is unknown whether testing HIV-infected individuals for hepatitis C virus (HCV) and informing them of their HCV status impacts subsequent alcohol use. We hypothesized that HIV-infected individuals with current or past alcohol problems who reported being told they had HCV were more likely to 1) abstain from alcohol and 2) not drink unhealthy amounts compared to individuals who had not been told.Design, Participants, And MeasurementsData from a prospective, observational cohort study (HIV-Longitudinal Interrelationships of Viruses and Ethanol) were used to assess the association between awareness of having HCV at baseline and subsequent abstinence and not drinking unhealthy amounts as reported at 6-month follow-up intervals. General estimating equations logistic regression was used to account for the correlation from using repeated observations from the same subject over time. We adjusted for age, sex, race, homelessness, injection drug use, depressive symptoms, and having abnormal liver tests.ResultsParticipants who reported being told they had HCV were more likely to report abstaining from alcohol (AOR = 1.60; 95% CI: 1.13 to 2.27) and not drinking unhealthy amounts (AOR = 1.46; 95% CI: 1.01 to 2.11).ConclusionsAmong patients infected with HIV who had a history of alcohol problems, reporting being told one had HCV was associated with greater abstinence from alcohol and less unhealthy amounts of drinking.

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