Global prevalence of occult hepatitis C virus: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Table 1 Summary of meta-analysis results for the global prevalence of occult hepatitis C virus infection

	Prevalence % (95%CI)	95% prediction interval	Studies (n)	Participants (n)	1H (95%CI)	2I² (95%CI)	P heterogeneity
Seronegative OCI
Overall	9.6 (6.8-12.7)	(0-44.1)	75	8535	4.3 (4-4.6)	94.7 (93.8-95.4)	< 0.001
Trim-and-fill adjusted analysis	5.3 (2.9-8.2)	(0.0-45.1)	85	NA	5.1 (4.8-5.4)	96.2 (95.7-96.6)	< 0.001
Cross-sectional	9.3 (6.5-12.6)	(0-43.6)	68	8250	4.4 (4.1-4.8)	94.9 (94.1-95.6)	< 0.001
Low risk of bias	10.2 (5.9-15.5)	(0-45.9)	28	3372	4.3 (3.8-4.8)	94.6 (93.1-95.7)	< 0.001
Seropositive OCI
Overall	13.4 (7.9-20)	(0-52)	24	2642	3.8 (3.3-4.3)	93 (90.8-94.7)	< 0.001
Trim-and-fill adjusted analysis	5.3 (1.4-10.7)	(0.0-49.9)	32	NA	4.5 (4.0-5.0)	95.1 (93.9-96.0)	< 0.001
Cross-sectional	12.5 (7.2-18.7)	(0-48.5)	23	2530	3.5 (3.1-4.1)	92 (89.3-94)	< 0.001
Low risk of bias	12.8 (4.6-23.6)	(0-57.6)	9	1659	3.6 (2.8-4.6)	92.3 (87.5-95.2)	< 0.001

¹H is a measure of the extent of heterogeneity, a value of H =1 indicates homogeneity of effects and a value of H >1 indicates potential heterogeneity of effects.

²I² describes the proportion of total variation in study estimates due to heterogeneity, a value > 50% indicates the presence of heterogeneity.

OCI: Occult hepatitis C virus infection; n: Number; 95%CI: 95% confidence interval; NA: Not applicable.