Knowledge and Practice of Hepatitis B and C Prevention among Seropositive and Seronegative Prospective Blood Donors in a Tertiary Care Hospital in Eastern Nigeria
Introduction: Hepatitis B and C infections are endemic in Nigeria and the major causes of chronic liver diseases, including hepatocellular carcinoma. One of the major routes of transmission is by transfusion of infected blood or blood products. Awareness of the disease is important, and this stu...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
JCDR Research and Publications Pvt. Ltd.
2022-04-01
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| Series: | National Journal of Laboratory Medicine |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.njlm.net/articles/PDF/2608/50619_CE[Ra1]_F(SHU)_PF1(JY_SHU)reredo_PFA3(SHU)_PB(JY_SHU)_PN(SHU).pdf |
| Summary: | Introduction: Hepatitis B and C infections are endemic in
Nigeria and the major causes of chronic liver diseases, including
hepatocellular carcinoma. One of the major routes of transmission
is by transfusion of infected blood or blood products. Awareness
of the disease is important, and this study seeks to compare the
knowledge and practice of the disease among the seropositive
and seronegative prospective blood donors.
Aim: To assess the difference in the level of knowledge and
preventive practice of blood borne hepatitis among hepatitis B
and hepatitis C seropositive and seronegative prospective blood
donors.
Materials and Methods: The present study was a descriptive
survey carried out between June 2019 to January 2020 in
the Blood Donor’s Department of the University of Nigeria
Teaching Hospital, Enugu, Nigeria. A pretested self/interviewer’s
administered questionnaire was used to assess the knowledge
and practice among 100 hepatitis B and hepatitis C seropositive
and 305 seronegative prospective blood donors. The hepatitis
B and C seropositive subjects were screened using Enzyme
Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) technique. The findings and
scores were analysed using IBM Corporation 2019 Statistical
Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) software version 21.0.
Results: Total of 305 respondents were seronegative while 82
and 18 were hepatitis B and C seropositive, respectively. The
mean age of the study participants was 27.78±7.17 years,
whereas it was 28.09±6.36 years and 27.46±7.968 years among
seropositive and seronegative respondents, respectively. In the
study, 98 (98%) males and 2 (2%) females were in the seropositive
group while, 268 (87.9%) males and 37 (12.1%) females were in
seronegative group. The overall knowledge score and practice
score were 56.3% and 28.1%, respectively. In the seropositive
group, the average knowledge score was 27.3% and the average
practice score was 17%. While in the seronegative group, the
average knowledge score was 65.7% and the average score on
practice score was 31.8%. There was a significant association
between seropositive and being a male (p-value=0.001), less
educated (p-value=0.002), currently unmarried (p-value=0.029),
knowledge above average (p-value=0.001), and practice below
average (p=0.002). None of the respondents had hepatitis B
vaccination.
Conclusion: Based on the results obtained from the present
study, it is evident that the level of knowledge and practice
among the seropositive respondent is significantly low when
compared with the seronegative groups. There is a need for a
serious awareness campaign on the transmission and prevention
of hepatitis B and C, and the possibility of extending hepatitis
B immunisation coverage in the country owing to the increasing
burden of the disease. |
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| ISSN: | 2277-8551 2455-6882 |