Abstract
Background: Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is a huge public health problem. Among health professionals, medical and health sciences college students are risk groups.
Objective: The objective of the study was to determine the knowledge, attitude, and practices towards Hepatitis B virus prevention and associated factors among private Medical, and Health Science’s College students in Bahir Dar city, North West Ethiopia.
Methods: An institution-based cross-sectional study was conducted from May 1st – 30th /2017. All the available four private Medical and Health Sciences Colleges in Bahir Dar city were considered and included in the study to select 390 students using a systematic sampling technique. A pre-tested structured questionnaire, which has socio-demographic, knowledge, attitude and practice sections, was used to collect the data. Data were coded, entered and cleaned using Epi data version 3.1 and exported to SPSS version 21.0 software for analysis. Bivariate logistic regression analysis was used to identify potential variable for multivariable logistic regression and those variables with 0.2 and less P-value entered in the next logistic regression model to identify the possible factors associated with knowledge, attitude, and practice towards Hepatitis B virus prevention. Significance level was set at P-value less than 0.05.
Results: The age of the respondents ranged from 18-48 years with the mean (±SD) age of 23.74(3.48). About eighty-four, percent (83.8%) of respondents had good knowledge, whereas 44.6% had a favorable attitude and 32.6% had a good practice. Being unmarried (AOR=2.34, 95% CI: 1.32-4.15), age category 20-24 (AOR=11.5, 95% C.I: 2.60-51.5), and ≥ 25 (AOR=11.6, 95% CI: 2.47-54.4) was associated to knowledge, whereas study year (AOR=1.59, 95% CI: 1.01,2.51) and practice (AOR=2.95, 95% CI: 1.89, 4.58) were significantly associated to attitudes; and good knowledge (AOR=2.07, 95% C.I: 1.06, 4.04) and favorable attitude (AOR=2.79, 95% CI: 1.79,4.34) were significantly associated with practice, respectively.
Conclusion: The overall knowledge status of the respondents about Hepatitis B virus prevention was good. But their attitudes and practices were unfavorable and not good respectively.
Development and validation of a liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry metabonomic platform in human plasma of liver failure caused by hepatitis B virus