Monitoring injecting drug users' (IDUs) health is challenging because IDUs form a difficult to reach population. We examined the impact of recruitment setting on hepatitis C prevalence. Individual datasets from 12 studies were merged. Predictors of HCV positivity were sought through a multilevel analysis using a mixed-effects logistic model, with study identifier as random intercept. HCV prevalence ranged from 21% to 86% across the studies. Overall, HCV prevalence was higher in IDUs recruited in drug treatment centres compared to those recruited in low-threshold settings (74% and 42%, respectively, P < 0·001). Recruitment setting remained significantly associated with HCV prevalence after adjustment for duration of injecting and recent injection (adjusted odds ratio 0·7, 95% confidence interval 0·6-0·8, P = 0·05). Recruitment setting may have an impact on HCV prevalence estimates of IDUs in Europe. Assessing the impact of mixed recruitment strategies, including respondent-driven sampling, on HCV prevalence estimates, would be valuable.

Academic Centre of General Practice Katholieke Universiteit Leuven Belgium

ASL TO3 Piedmont Centre for Drug Addiction Epidemiology Italy

Centre for Infectious Disease Control National Institute for Public Health and the Environment The Netherlands

European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction Portugal

Health Protection Scotland Glasgow UK

Instituto de Salud Carlos 3 Spain

Istituto Superiore di Sanità Italy

Karolinska Institutet Sweden

National Centre of Health Management Republic of Moldova

National Institute of Public Health National Institute of Hygiene Warsaw Poland

National Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction Czech Republic

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