Fig. 1

Flowchart of records identification and study selection. A “report” refers to any document mentioning HCV seroprevalence data, and a “study” relates to the measurement of anti-HCV antibodies in a specific population or setting. Of the 31 reports that met the review criteria, four reported seroprevalence data on separate study subjects or settings (as shown in Table 1), and each seroprevalence data was extracted as an individual study. Therefore, 31 reports met the criteria for this review, and 37 prevalence data, referred to as “studies”, were extracted