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Abstract Details
Integrated supervised consumption services and hepatitis C testing and treatment among people who inject drugs in Toronto, Canada: A cross-sectional analysis
1Division of Epidemiology, Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
2Centre on Drug Policy Evaluation, MAP Centre for Urban Health Solutions, St. Michael's Hospital, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
3South Riverdale Community Health Centre, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
4MAP Centre for Urban Health Solutions, St. Michael's Hospital, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
5Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Dornsife School of Public Health, Drexel University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.
6Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry, Western University, London, Ontario, Canada.
7Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
8Division of Infectious Diseases and Global Public Health, University of California San Diego School of Medicine, La Jolla, California, USA.
Abstract
Despite the availability of publicly funded hepatitis C (HCV) treatment in Canada, treatment gaps persist, particularly among people who inject drugs. We estimate correlates of HCV care cascade engagement (testing, diagnosis, and treatment) among people who inject drugs in Toronto, Canada and examine the effect of accessing differing supervised consumption service (SCS) models on self-reported HCV testing and treatment. This is a cross-sectional baseline analysis of 701 people who inject drugs surveyed in the Toronto, Ontario integrated Supervised Injection Services (OiSIS-Toronto) study between November 2018 and March 2020. We examine correlates of self-reported HCV care cascade outcomes including SCS model, demographic, socio-structural, drug use, and harm reduction characteristics. Overall, 647 participants (92%) reported ever receiving HCV testing, of whom 336 (52%) had been diagnosed with HCV. Among participants who reported ever being diagnosed with HCV, 281 (84%) reported chronic HCV, of whom 130 (46%) reported HCV treatment uptake and 151 (54%) remained untreated. Compared to those with no SCS use, participants who had ever injected at an integrated SCS model with co-located HCV care had greater prevalence of both ever receiving HCV testing (adjusted prevalence ratio [aPR]: 1.12, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.02-1.24) and ever receiving HCV treatment (aPR: 1.67, 95% CI: 1.04-2.69). Over half of participants diagnosed with chronic HCV reported remaining untreated. Our findings suggest that integrated SCS models with co-located HCV care represent key strategies for linkage to HCV care, but that more is needed to support scale-up.