Prevalence of anti-HCV and incidence rate of HCV seroconversion in a large multiregional health check-up population in China: a cross-sectional and longitudinal study of 1.6 million adults.

Anti-HCV prevalence in 1,610,735 adults in China’s Meinian health check-up database was 0.89% (95% CI 0.77%–1.01%), higher in females, elderly, and Central/West regions.

• Why it matters: China’s high hepatitis C burden creates a need to quantify how common anti-HCV is and where ongoing transmission risk is concentrated to guide screening and prevention.
• What they did: Using ELISA anti-HCV testing across all 31 mainland provinces (2017–2023), the study calculated weighted prevalence and, in 179,447 participants, estimated HCV seroconversion incidence with Poisson regression for risk factors.
• The result: HCV seroconversion occurred at 0.72 per 1,000 person-years over a median 1.5-year follow-up, with higher risk linked to older age and Central/West residence, border regions, low GDP areas, and high baseline anti-HCV prevalence.

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