Knowledge, attitude, and practice study on hepatitis B among medical and nursing undergraduate students of an apex healthcare institute at Uttarakhand foothills: A descriptive analysis

Abstract

Background: Viral hepatitis is preventable, yet a global health priority. As hepatitis B (Hep B) remains an occupational risk for healthcare workers (HCWs), the Government of India recently mandated universal adult Hep B vaccination for all HCWs. However, in the absence of institutional policy, its real-time utilization in a hospital was dependent on individual's general awareness. Therefore, this study was designed to assess baseline knowledge, attitude, and practices among undergraduate medical and nursing students, the future HCWs, regarding Hep B at an apex healthcare institute at Uttarakhand. Materials and Methods: A descriptive survey was carried out using self-administered questionnaire among undergraduate medical and nursing students of a medical college between July and September 2018. Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS Ver 22.0) was used for analysis. Results: The study comprised 180 medical and 183 nursing students. About 55.0% of medical and 33.9% of nursing students were correctly aware about the disease; 98.3% of medical and 86.9% of nursing students were aware about vaccine. About 80.6% of medical and 87.4% of nursing students showed positive attitude, recognizing disease as a public health problem. However, only 82.8% of medical and 70.0% of nursing students underwent vaccination; mere 62.4% and 49.2% of vaccinated completed three-dose vaccination schedule, respectively. Furthermore, around 7% of them checked their titer post vaccination. Conclusion: Despite comparatively low awareness level about the disease, most students had sufficiently high knowledge about vaccine and underwent vaccination. However, only half of them could complete three-dose vaccination schedule. Only a handful of subjects underwent post-vaccination titer assessment, an instrumental approach to safeguard them against accidental Hep B exposure.

Adequate Knowledge and Low Vaccination Rates of Hepatitis B Virus Infection Among Students, Medical, and Paramedical Persons in a Tertiary Care Teaching Hospital

“…The knowledge of HBV infection appears to be variable in different parts of the same country, as evidenced by the results of a similar study from North India, which had noted that less than 50% of medical and nursing persons had good knowledge of HBV infection [13]. The results of this study regarding the knowledge of HBV infection were similar to a previous study (85%) from western India [14].…”

“…Most study participants (86%) were aware of the availability of vaccines against HBV infection, a result almost similar to some previous studies [13,16,17]. The awareness among the I MBBS students was noted to be the least (48%), with an improvement of knowledge of HBV vaccination among final MBBS students (93%).…”

“…In a recent study, although only 50% of study participants had good knowledge of HBV infection, the vaccination rates among the medical students (62%) and the nurses (49%) appeared satisfactory [13]. A study from Ethiopia, which included healthcare workers of Hawassa University, revealed that less than 50% of study participants had good knowledge of vaccination and only 20% of them were vaccinated [18].…”

Knowledge, Attitude and Practice of Hepatitis B Vaccination among Clinical Medical Students at a Medical College in Nepal

“…In the current study, 58.8% clinical medical students had vaccinated at least once but complete vaccines were received by only 47.1%. Among the respondents, 48.5% were immunized at least once but complete vaccination were received by only 34.5% in the study by Jacob et al 9 In a similar study by Chhabra et al 12 , 82.8% students underwent vaccination but only 62.4% completed the recommended three doses of vaccination schedule. In a similar study by Alhowaish et al 11 , 69.5% had received HBV vaccine but only 38% of them had received the complete doses respectively.…”

“…Majority (97.1%) of the respondents had positive attitude towards Hepatitis B vaccination. In India, studies by Vasantha et al 8 , Chhabra et al 12 and Jacob et al 9 reported positive attitude by 77.56%, 80.6% and 84.3% respectively. Whereas, 67.6% of the students demonstrated a poor attitude in the study by Fortes et al 10 in Senegal.…”