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Although hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is more common among adults with type 2 diabetes, it is uncertain whether HCV precedes the development of diabetes. Thus, we performed a prospective (case-cohort) analysis to examine if persons who acquired type 2 diabetes were more likely to have had antecedent HCV infection when enrolled in a community-based cohort of men and women between the ages of 44 and 65 in the United States (Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study [ARIC]). Among 1,084 adults free of diabetes at baseline, 548 developed diabetes over 9 years of follow-up evaluation. Incident cases of diabetes were identified by using fasting glucose and medical history and HCV antibodies were assessed at baseline. A priori, persons were categorized as low-risk or high-risk for diabetes based on their age and body mass index, factors that appeared to modify the type 2 diabetes-HCV infection …