Skip Navigation



IJE Advance Access published online on August 10, 2007
International Journal of Epidemiology, doi:10.1093/ije/dym096
This Article
Right arrow Full Text Freely available
Right arrow FREE Full Text (PDF) Freely available
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
36/4/731    most recent
dym096v1
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Prasad, L.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Prasad, L.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the International Epidemiological Association © The Author 2007; all rights reserved.

Cohort Profile: The Swiss Hepatitis C Cohort Study (SCCS)

Leonie Prasad1, Virginie Masserey Spicher2, Marcel Zwahlen1,*, Martin Rickenbach3, Beat Helbling4, Francesco Negro5 and Swiss Hepatitis C Cohort Study Group

1Department of Social and Preventive Medicine, Division of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Finkenhubelweg 11, 3012 Bern, Switzerland.
2Swiss Federal Office of Public Health, Division of Communicable Diseases, Vaccinations Section, 3003 Bern, Switzerland.
3Swiss HIV Cohort Study, Mont Paisible 16, 1011-Lausanne-CHUV, Switzerland.
4Gastroenterologie & Hepatologie, Stadtspital Waid, Thiéchestrasse 99, 8037 Zürich, Switzerland
5Services de Gastroentérologie et d’Hépatologie et de Pathologie Clinique, Hôpitaux Universitaires, Rue Micheli-du-Crest 24, 1211 Genève 14, Switzerland.

* Corresponding author. E-mail: zwahlen@ispm.unibe.ch

Accepted 4 April 2007

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.


   How did the study come about?
 
The hepatitis C virus, formerly classified as ‘non-A non-B’ hepatitis virus, was identified in 1989.1 This blood-borne virus is endemic worldwide, with an estimated 170 million persons chronically infected, representing approximately 3% of the world population.2 Long-term morbidity associated with persistent hepatitis C virus infection includes the development of cirrhosis and primary liver cancer.

The Swiss Hepatitis C Cohort Study (SCCS) is a joint effort between the Swiss Group of Experts in Viral Hepatitis and the Swiss Association for the Study of the Liver. The SCCS was established because large population-based cohort studies are the only way to confirm or refute working hypotheses on the natural course of chronic hepatitis C and on hepatitis C virus pathology, and partly because experience with a similar collaborative effort of specialized treatment centres had already been successfully established for a human immunodeficiency virus cohort in Switzerland.3–9 Therefore, the aims of the SCCS were . . . [Full Text of this Article]


   What does it cover?
 

   Who is in the sample?
 
Patient characteristics

   How often have they been followed up?
 

   What has been measured?
 
At enrolment
Laboratory procedures
Follow-up

   What is attrition like?
 

   What has it found? Key findings
 
Patient characteristics
Time to event analysis
Pathology of hepatitis C virus

   What are the main strengths and weaknesses?
 

   Can I get hold of the data? Where can I find out more?
 

   Appendix
 
Members of the SCCS study group

Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?


This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 Int J EpidemiolHome page
M. Bopp, A. Spoerri, M. Zwahlen, F. Gutzwiller, F. Paccaud, C. Braun-Fahrlander, A. Rougemont, and M. Egger
Cohort Profile: The Swiss National Cohort--a longitudinal study of 6.8 million people
Int. J. Epidemiol., March 7, 2008; (2008) dyn042v1.
[Full Text] [PDF]