Limited Awareness of Hepatitis B Adult Vaccination among Patients in a South Indian Teaching Hospital

Abstract

Awareness about the Hepatitis B is less addressed in the Indian settings even though hepatitis seems to be a serious public health problem. Objective to assess the Hepatitis B adult vaccination status among the patients of a medical college teaching hospital and to check the proportion of patientsaffected with Hepatitis B. A cross-sectional observational study was carried out over a period of six months at inpatients general medicine department. Patients of adult age group (18 -59years) of both genders were included.Patient interview was done using Twelve structured questions for assessing the awareness about hepatitis B and vaccination status. Out of 82 patients interviewed demographic details shows equal number males and females [50%] with an average age group of40yrs. The proportion of hepatitis B was found to be 3.68% with male predominance. Majority of patients were found to be not vaccinated (n=70, 85.36%) and even awareness about hepatitis B infection as also very minimal among them. Poor educational status (p-value=0.0425) shows statistically significant association withlower vaccination status scores. Implementation of proper public awareness program and foster proper screening campaigns can resolve the current scenario of deprived vaccination status in India toa greater extent.