Hepatitis C is a disease that causes inflammation and infection of the liver. Hepatitis C can be either acute or chronic and is a major cause of liver cancer. The purpose of this research was to report the seroprevalence and risk factors of HCV infection based on the data Azar cohort, East Azerbaijan, Iran.

In this cross sectional study, the data of 4949 subjects in the age range of 35-70 years from 2015 to 2016 who participated in Azar cohort, were analyzed. Based on cluster sampling, subjects were invited to complete the questionnaire and perform the tests. Ten milliliters (10 mL) of blood samples was taken from each participants and checked the presence of antibodies against HCV using enzyme immunoassay (ELISA) Kit. All data were analyzed using SPSS 19.0

In the present study, the mean age of the participants was 49.15±9.02 years. Of these participants, 54.3% (n=2686) were females. Seven people (0.14%) were detected as HCV positive. In males, the highest frequency of anti HCV was seen in the age group less than 40 years (0.23%). The history of hospitalization (P=0.02) and abnormal urine (P=0.01) was a statistical significant association with the frequency of HCV infection.

The prevalence of hepatitis C in Azar cohort study was 0.14%, which was lower rate than other reports from Iran.