Serological Evidence of Hepatitis E Virus (HEV) from a Multi-ethnic Study of Asian men (The Subang Men’s Health Study)

Abstract

Abstract Risky health behaviours are expressions of masculinity for men and may be a cause of their high health risks relative to those of their female counterparts. A total of 955 archived serum samples were analysed for anti-HEV immunoglobulin M (IgM) and immunoglobulin G (IgG) using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). This study examined the prevalence of HEV in archived serum samples from the Subang Men's Health Study, in which samples were randomly collected from an affluent township in Malaysia, to determine the prevalence of anti-HEV IgG antibodies. The anti-HEV IgG prevalence of the overall sample was 11.5% (95% CI, 9.6–13.7). Statistically significant differences in the prevalence of IgG anti-HEV antibodies were only found in regard to age-group categories and ethnicity. Seroprevalence rates increased gradually with age. The age group 61–87 years was found to have an over 3-fold higher risk of HEV seropositivity than those aged 40–50 years (OR = 3.43, 95% CI 1.76–6.70). Men with Chinese ethnicity had a nearly 27-fold higher risk of HEV seropositivity than those of Malay ethnicity (OR = 26.99, 95% CI 6.57–110.86). No other statistically significant associations were observed between other variables and HEV seropositivity. Our findings suggest that men in urban townships may have high seroprevalence rates of HEV. In particular, a high anti-HEV seroprevalence rate was found among Chinese men, and the prevalence increased with age.