Hepatitis B Vaccination Coverage among Bangladeshi Healthcare Workers: Findings from Tertiary Care Hospitals

Abstract

Healthcare workers (HCWs) are at a four-fold higher risk of being infected with the hepatitis B virus in hospital settings. This study investigated the hepatitis B vaccination coverage among Bangladeshi HCWs in selected tertiary care hospitals. Between September 2020 to January 2021, a multicenter cross-sectional study was conducted in 11 hospitals across Bangladesh. Participants included physicians, nurses, cleaners, and administrative staff. A semi-structured questionnaire was used to collect data through face-to-face interviews. Descriptive and multivariate statistics were used to analyze the data. The overall hepatitis B vaccination coverage was 66.6% (1363/2046) among HCWs, with cleaning staff having the lowest at 38.8%. Among the unvaccinated, 89.2% of HCWs desired to receive the free vaccine in the near future. In the last year, over one-fourth of staff (27.9%) had at least one history of needlestick injury. Only 9.8% HCWs were found to have attended training on hepatitis B virus prevention and management in the previous two years. Multivariate analysis revealed that physicians (AOR: 7.13, 95% CI: 4.94–10.30) and nurses (AOR: 6.00, 95% CI: 4.09–8.81) were more likely to be vaccinated against hepatitis B than cleaners and administrative staff. Low uptake of hepatitis B vaccination among HCWs suggests policies that require vaccination are needed to achieve optimum vaccine coverage.