Knowledge, attitude and practice towards hepatitis B infection among high school students in Asante Mampong, Ghana

Author(s):  
Godfred Otchere ◽  
Emmanuel Dwomoh ◽  
Emmanuel Kumah ◽  
Samuel Egyakwa Ankomah ◽  
Adam Fusheini ◽  
...  

BACKGROUND: Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is a serious global public health problem, with significant morbidity and mortality from acute and chronic complications. Increasing awareness and improving knowledge of HBV helps reduce the risk of the disease. Although many studies have been conducted on HBV in Ghana, few have focused on examining knowledge, attitude and preventive practices among adolescents towards the disease. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to assess HBV knowledge, attitude and practice (KAP) among adolescents in high schools in the Asante Mampong Municipality in the Ashanti Region of Ghana. METHODS: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted among 398 adolescents from six senior high schools within the Asante Mampong Municipality. Data was collected using a 30-item structured questionnaire. Each item had two response options: “Yes” and “No”. A scoring system was generated and respondents were given a score on each item answered. A positive response to an item was scored 1 point and a negative response was scored 0. Scores were then summed up and averaged to give the mean knowledge, attitude and practice scores. RESULTS: The majority of the respondents were male (60%), between 15 and 17 years (45%), Christian (93%) and in their first year of study. The adolescents had basic knowledge, positive attitude, and poor practices towards HBV. There was no significant relationship between the demographic variables of the respondents and KAP mean scores. CONCLUSION: There is the need to introduce health education and awareness programs in schools within the Asante Mampong Municipality to improve students’ level of knowledge of HBV. Countrywide studies examining KAP towards HBV infection among adolescents are also warranted.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rohullah Roien ◽  
Sayed Hamid Mousavi ◽  
Mohammad Hossein Delshad ◽  
Fatemeh Pourhaji

Abstract Background: Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is a major public health problem worldwide. Health care workers are at high risk of obtaining HBV infection due to direct interaction with HBV-infected blood and body fluids in their workplace.Objective: The purpose of this research was to assess KAP of Health care workers towards Hepatitis B infection in Kabul.Methods: this cross-sectional study was conducted between November, 2018 and January; 2019 among 502 health care workers using simple random sampling method. The tool for data collection was a self-administered structured questionnaire. The collected data were analyzed using SPSS 16.00.Results: The overall knowledge, attitude and practice score of HCWs were 86.58%, 34.73% and 61.22% respectively. Most of participants correctly identified HBV transmissions. Health care workers with higher education level, showed good knowledge than those with low educational level (p < 0.0001). The majority of the participants had a poor attitude towards HBV prevention (53.98%). only 77.45% of participants had been screened for HBV and 56.37% of participants had been vaccinated against HBV, only 5.17% had completed three doses of vaccine.Conclusion: The finding of our study shows that health care workers in Kabul, are at higher risk of acquiring HBV infection due to low vaccination coverage and poor preventive practice. We recommend that free and compulsory vaccination, awareness and encouraging programs should be provided for all health care workers in order to increase favorable attitude and effective preventive measures for HBV infections.


2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 ◽  
pp. 1-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Teklay Gebrecherkos ◽  
Getu Girmay ◽  
Mulualem Lemma ◽  
Markos Negash

Background. Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection remains a serious public health concern worldwide. Mother-to-child transmission (MTCT) is the major mode in endemic areas, including Ethiopia, where little is known about pregnant women’s knowledge, attitudes, and practice towards HBV infection and MTCT. Therefore, the study is aimed at determining the knowledge, attitude, and practice towards HBV among pregnant women attending antenatal care. Method. A cross-sectional study was conducted from February to April 2018, at the University of Gondar Comprehensive Specialized Hospital. A total of 354 pregnant women were selected by systematic random sampling and included in this study. KAP of participants on HBV MTCT was assessed using a structured questionnaire. Data was analyzed using SPSS version 22 software. Result. The total response rate was 100% (354/354). Out of the 354 participants, 73.4% were within the poor knowledge. Only 18.9% of the respondents know HBV can be transmitted from mother to child during pregnancy. Less than half (43.8) of the participants think that they will never be infected with HBV, and 47.7% of them go to traditional healers when they have symptoms of HBV. Majority of the respondents (85.87%) had never screened for HBV, and only 28.5% of the participants believed that hepatitis B can cause liver cancer. In multivariable analysis, residence, income, and educational level were associated with mean score knowledge and attitude. Conclusions. Knowledge about HBV among pregnant women was found to be poor, and their attitude and practice were also limited. Therefore, extensive health education program should be given to the pregnant women to increase their awareness towards HBV infection. All pregnant women should be screened for HBV as part of ANC follow-up.


Author(s):  
Vasantha Mallika M. C. ◽  
Sivaanusuya S.

Background: Hepatitis B infection is a serious global public health problem. About two billion people are infected with hepatitis B Virus (HBV) all over the world. The prevalence of HBV infection in India is 4%(2%-8%) with more prevalence among health care workers. Medical students represent a group that is at high-risk for acquiring and spreading hepatitis B infection. Despite increasing prevalence of HBV infection, there is paucity of knowledge, attitude and practice on HBV among medical students. Objective of the study was to assess the knowledge, attitude and practices on prevention of hepatitis B infection among medical students of Sree Mookambika Institute of Medical Sciences, Kulasekharam.Methods: A cross sectional study was conducted among 205 MBBS students using a pretested self-administered questionnaire for assessing the knowledge, attitude, and practice on prevention of HBV infection after obtaining informed consent from the participants.Results: Among 205 MBBS students, correct response towards Knowledge, Attitude, and Practices were given by 77.07%, 77.56%, and 76.59% respectively, 79.5% of the students were fully vaccinated; 20.5% were partially vaccinated against Hepatitis B Virus infection.Conclusions: The medical students are at a very high risk of contracting HBV infection during their training period in view of low HBV vaccine uptake rate and high chance of accidental exposure to blood infected with HBV. Creating awareness among medical students on various aspects of Hepatitis B infection through health education programs before their exposure in medical colleges and subjecting them to active immunization against HBV are mandatory to control the spread of Hepatitis B viral infection.


Author(s):  
Agha M. Wali Mirza ◽  
Syed Ali Farhan ◽  
Junaid Nawab ◽  
Sahrish Mukhtar ◽  
Shagufta Naqvi ◽  
...  

Background: Hepatitis B and Hepatitis C being the most prevalent and preventable infectious disease in Sindh with prison inmates being a major risk group. Aims: To assess the knowledge, attitude and practice of this deadly debilitating disease. Study Design: Interventional Study Place and Duration of Study: It was performed in Malir Jail, Karachi, Pakistan in which 128 prison inmates participated. The research was done in three phases for the duration of 1 month. Methodology: In first phase a pre-intervention questionnaire was filled which assessed the basic knowledge regarding hepatitis, its spread and prevention. In the second phase an elaborate audiovisual presentation was given with detailed explanation to all the participants about hepatitis B and hepatitis C. In the third phase a post-intervention questionnaire was filled. Results: On assessment, the results showed that before intervention prisoners lacked basic knowledge about hepatitis and after the intervention their knowledge and awareness improved significantly with a p-value of <0.001. Conclusion: It is concluded that prison inmates of Malir jail Karachi lacked basic knowledge of hepatitis B and hepatitis C and with substantial repeated interventions this preventable infectious disease could be prevented.


2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Killard SC ◽  

Introduction: Hepatitis B is a highly contagious infection. It is 50 to 100 times more infectious than HIV. It is the world’s most common liver infection, which is caused by a DNA-virus, the hepatitis B virus and is transmitted between people through blood, semen, vaginal fluids and mucous membranes. Basic knowledge about hepatitis B is necessary; with more knowledge people take preventive actions against hepatitis B, such as using stick proof cannulas. The general objective of this study was to assess the knowledge, attitude and practice of HBV infection among informal caregivers at Ndola Teaching Hospital, Ndola, Zambia. Method: A Cross sectional study was carried out at Ndola Teaching Hospital from June 2020 to September 2020. Systematic random sampling was used using questionnaire based interviews to consenting informal caregivers above the age of 18 years who were waiting for their patients in Gynecological ward, surgical wards and internal medicine wards. Results: A total number of 165 informal caregivers at Ndola Teaching Hospital were interviewed using a pretested questionnaire. The highest age group (44.2%) interviewed was between 25 to 34 years of age. The majority of informal caregivers (52.1%) went up to secondary education level and 63.0% of the informal caregivers were females. Most informal caregivers (53.3%) only had an average knowledge about hepatitis B infection. Informal caregiver’s education level was directly associated with the level of knowledge about Hepatitis B (p-value<0.001). Majority (87.3%) of the informal caregivers had good attitude towards hepatitis B. There was a direct association (p value <0.001) between informal caregiver’s knowledge on hepatitis B with their attitude. All the informal caregivers (100%) had bad practices on Hepatitis B and majority of the respondents 159 (96.4%) were not vaccinated only 6 (3.6%) were vaccinated against HBV. Conclusion: Hepatitis B is a major health problem globally casting an enormous burden on the health-care system a major source of patient’s misery. This illness or disease is preventable. In this study, the majority of the participants had good attitudes making knowledge as the main determinant of their practices. Therefore, primary prevention approach be taken by extensively and frequently teaching all informal care givers in all hospitals and clinics on how to protect themselves from the disease. Pictorial Posters depicting the proper way of handling patients by informal caregivers be displayed in health centers (wards and OPDs).


2020 ◽  
Vol 38 (3) ◽  
pp. 145-149
Author(s):  
Md Golam Mustafa ◽  
Md Shahinul Alam ◽  
Md Golam Azam ◽  
Md Mahabubul Alam ◽  
Md Saiful Islam ◽  
...  

Worldwide, hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is still a major public health problem. Bangladesh having a large burden of HBV infection, should be a major contributor towards it’s elimination by 2030. The country has been making progress in reducing incidence of HBV infection during the past decades. The progresses are mainly due to large vaccination coverage among children and large coverage of timely birthdose vaccine for prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HBV. However, Bangladesh still faces challenges in achieving target of reduction in mortality from HBV. On the basis of targets of the WHO’s Global health sector strategy on viral hepatitis 2016–2021, we highlight priorities for action towards HBV elimination. To attain the target of reduced mortality we propose that, the service coverage targets of diagnosis and treatment should be prioritized along with vaccination. Firstly, improvements are needed in the diagnostic and treatment abilities of medical institutions and health workers. Secondly, the government needs to reduce the costs of health care. Thirdly, better coordination is needed across existing national program and resources to establish an integrated system for prevention, screening, diagnosis and treatment of HBV infection. In this way, we can make progress towards achieving the target of eliminating HBV from Bangladesh by 2030 J Bangladesh Coll Phys Surg 2020; 38(3): 145-149


2006 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 492-497 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeyaraj D. Pandian ◽  
Deetha Santosh ◽  
T. Santosh Kumar ◽  
P. Sankara Sarma ◽  
Kurupath Radhakrishnan

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