Regional differences in the hepatitis C morbidity indicator in Poland in the years 2008–2013
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Wydział Nauk o Zdrowiu, Akademia Humanistyczno-Ekonomiczna w Łodzi, Polska
Submission date: 2022-04-26
Acceptance date: 2022-09-07
Publication date: 2022-09-13
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Andrzej Śliwczyński
Wydział Nauk o Zdrowiu, Akademia Humanistyczno-Ekonomiczna, Doktora Seweryna Sterlinga 26, 90-212 Łódź, Łódź, Polska
Zeszyty Naukowe CSK MSWiA w Warszawie 2022;1(2)
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Introduction and objective: The goal of the article is to estimate the population of people suffering from hepatitis C in Poland in the years 2008–2013 as well as to analyze regional differences in the morbidity indicator. Material and methods: The database of the National Health Fund was used to create a set of hepatitis C patients based on ICD-10 codes. B17.1 - acute hepatitis C and B18.2 - chronic viral hepatitis C. It was assumed that patients with listed codes are people with indicated anti-HCV antibodies, not necessarily with specific viraemia. Based on the aforementioned ICD-10 codes and patient’s identifier, the number of sufferers (annual morbidity) was established along with territorial indicators. Regional incidence and morbidity indicators per 10,000 inhabitants of a given voivodeship were calculated based on demographic data for each year separately. Annual incidence was established as the number of patients which were not present in the data sets for the previous year. Due to a short period of analysis repeated infections were not analysed. Results: Results: In Poland most hepatitis C patients are aged 52–58 years. The voivodeship with the highest morbidity indicator per 10,000 inhabitants is the Dolnośląskie (4.28) and Mazowieckie (3.95). The lowest morbidity indicators per 10,000 inhabitants are present in Podkarpackie (1.19) and Wielkopolskie (1.75) voivodeships. The highest hepatitis C morbidity indicator is observed in Mazowieckie (15.22) and Kujawsko-Pomorskie (11.81) voivodeships. Conclusions: The number of Polish patients with established anti-HCV antibodies is relatively constant, and the number of new cases fluctuates at around 6% annually. There are clear differences in incidence and morbidity indicator values in Poland between various voivodeships, which additionally change over time.