- Explain to patients that heavy alcohol use may speed up progression of the hepatitis C virus infection and contribute to an early death. The effect of alcohol on shortened survival is particularly strong among women, the investigators in this study found.
ARLINGTON, Va., Jan. 25 -- Women with hepatitis C viral infections who drink heavily squander their normal survival advantage over men with the same infections, investigators here found.
Heavy-drinking HCV-infected women died more than a decade earlier than HCV-infected women who drank only moderately or not at all, reported Chiung M. Chen, M.A., and colleagues, in the February issue of Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research.
The findings suggest that alcohol affects men and women with HCV differently, and provides further evidence that heavy drinking contributes to HCV-related disease progression and death, the investigators said.
"Previous studies indicated that alcohol use is a risk factor for HCV disease progression, but they seldom examined the effect on women and men separately," said Chen, an analyst at the research firm CSR, Inc. based here. "Even fewer studies were able to examine the effect of alcohol on HCV mortality. Our study provides empirical evidence to fill the gap."
