The dates of enrollment were from April 2004 to May 2006. An anonymous questionnaire was designed by the study authors assessing patient demographics, knowledge of transmission of HCV infection, and exposure history to proven and suspected risk factors for HCV infection. Separate surveys were designed with questions pertinent to HCV-positive (HCV+) and HCV-negative learn more (HCV−) participants. These surveys were tested for face and content validity

by a group of adult gastroenterology and primary care physicians not directly involved in the study. The questionnaire was pretested in 10 HCV+ and 10 HCV− patients who provided feedback on the readability and clarity of the survey. After appropriate modifications, the questionnaire was again

tested in 10 different HCV+ and HCV− patients before full implementation. Each participant was asked to complete the survey at the time of his or her previously scheduled clinic visit. Patients selleck compound submitted the survey anonymously and were not contacted after the survey was returned. No personal identifiers were recorded. Informed consent was obtained from prospective subjects, and each subject’s electronic medical record was accessed to ascertain HCV serostatus and to determine which questionnaire to provide (HCV+, HCV−, or HCV untested). Individuals classified as “HCV untested” were not included in the study. To minimize recall bias, subjects were informed that a study of HCV and hepatitis vaccination awareness was being conducted Quisqualic acid in the general adult population, and that their invitation was not to be interpreted as particular suspicion of HCV infection in their individual case. The HCV+ and HCV− surveys were marked in a discrete way such that the subjects were not informed of their serostatus by the questionnaire. Surveyors were trained to interact consistently with HCV+ and HCV− volunteers, as they were unmasked. Surveyors were forbidden to answer questions or assist in completion of the survey aside from providing a writing instrument as needed.

The primary outcome was to compare the odds of having one or more tattoos in HCV+ cases compared with HCV− controls. The exact question asked on the survey was: “Have you ever had a tattoo?” Information was entered into a database from which analyses were done. The institutional review boards of both the Veterans Affairs New York Harbor Healthcare System and the Langone Medical Center of New York University approved the study. Statistical analysis was performed using Stata version 11.2 (Stata, College Station, TX) and a two-tailed P value of <0.05 was considered statistically significant. Colinearity of predictor variables were checked using the variance inflation factor test, using a cutoff of 2.5. Age was entered directly on the survey, whereas other variables were considered categorical and were treated as ordinal or nominal where appropriate. A Student t test was used to analyze continuous variables (e.g.