Assessment of Knowledge and Attitude Towards Hepatitis B Infection Among Health-Care Professionals in A North Indian City

Abstract

Introduction: Hepatitis B is an infection which occurs frequently worldwide. Hepatitis B virus is a DNA virus and is etiologically related to family Hepadnaviridae.Most of the cases of Hepatitis B virus infection do not have any symptoms when they are newly or chronically infected due to which there is silent spread of the infection which later causes serious liver disease. Incidence of the Hepatitis B virus infection among health-care professionals has been estimated to be 2–4 times more as compared to the general population.Aims: to assess the knowledge and attitude towards Hepatitis B infection among medical, dental, and nursing students in Bareilly city.Settings and Design: A cross-sectional observational study was conducted among the medical and nursing students of Rohilkhand Medical College and Hospital and dental students of Institute of Dental Sciences, Bareilly.Method and Materials: A self-reported questionnaire was distributed among all the students of the study who were present at the day.Statistical analysis used: p-value was calculated using Kruskal Walli’s ANOVA test. A p-value of 0.05 or less was used as cut off level for statistical significance.Results: Total 222 students were selected out of which 60 were medical, 60 were dental and 102 were nursing. In our study medical students had better knowledge, attitude towards Hepatitis B infection than dental and nursing students.Conclusions: None of the students of medical, dental, and nursing were fully aware on all aspects of Hepatitis B Virus infection and the vaccination status was found to be unsatisfactory which increased the risk to acquire Hepatitis B infection.