Prevalence hepatitis C virus and contributing factors in the elderly patient in hemodialysis unit in lraq

Objectives: Identification of hepatitis C virus prevalence and associated risk factors among hemodialysis patients. Methodology: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted at Between February 22, 2022, and May 22, 2022, data was collected from two dialysis center in Thi-Qar/Al-Hussein Teaching Hospital and Al-Nasiriya Teaching Hospital. sample size were 130 patients on hemodialysis included 103 were negative and 27 were positive for hepatitis C virus, Data were Research data were collected by using of questionnaire composed of 3 parts: Socio-demographic form: The form has 10 questions to establish age, gender, marital status, educational level, financial situation, resident, smoking, alcohol, duration of hemodialysis weekly, and duration of hemodialysis hours, Second part :investigation :AST ,ALT , Albumin level and GGT. Third part: questions about risk factors of prevalence of hepatitis C the Response options are based on a two-point Cronbach-type scale ranging from 1 (No) to 2 (Yes). Data were analyzed through the application of descriptive and inferential statistical approaches by using Statistical Package for Social Science (IBM SPSS) version 25.0. Results: The findings indicated that age are (60-64) years within age groups account for (51.5%) from total study sample and male 72.3%, So and majority of study sample were marriage also have primary school related to level education accounted for 43.1%. Recommendations: The study recommended to Encouraging educational training sessions intended at enhancing hemodialysis patients' awareness of factors that can increase their likelihood of getting the hepatitis C virus. Keywords: Hemodialysis Patients, Prevalence of Hepatitis C Virus, Risk Factors, elderly.