Yu Lijie, Wang Jian, Zhu Dawei, Leng Anli, Wangen Knut R
a Institute of Social Medicine and Health Management; Center for Health Economic Experiment and Public Policy; School of Public Health; Shandong University ; Jinan China.
b Center for Health Policy and Management; Institute of Medical Information & Library; Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences; Peking Union Medical College ; Beijing , China.
Hum Vaccin Immunother. 2016;12(1):70-6. doi: 10.1080/21645515.2015.1069932. Epub 2015 Jul 25.
Hepatitis B virus (HBV) remains a challenging public-health issue in China. Hepatitis B carriers and patients suffer not only physically but also experience strong discrimination and stigma. China's rural population is 629 million. Thus, there is a great need to understand the situation surrounding HBV-related discrimination in everyday life in rural China. We studied 6,538 participants (≥18 y old) from 42 villages across 7 provinces (districts). Many studies have addressed discrimination against those with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV). However, few studies have addressed HBV-related discrimination. We found that the fear of HBV infection, not lack of knowledge about it, predominantly leads to HBV-related discrimination (although limited knowledge is also a cause). Notably, receiving the HBV vaccination contributes to reduced discrimination. In addition, the existence of fewer misunderstandings about false HBV transmission routes plays a more important role in discrimination than does understanding of true HBV transmission routes. Therefore, to reduce HBV-related discrimination, policy makers should consider eliminating HBV-related fear, strengthening adult HBV immunization programs, developing large-scale education dissemination about HBV transmission routes and non-transmission routes, and paying greater attention to target populations.
在中国，乙型肝炎病毒（HBV）仍然是一个具有挑战性的公共卫生问题。乙肝携带者和患者不仅身体遭受痛苦，还遭受强烈的歧视和污名化。中国农村人口有6.29亿。因此，非常有必要了解中国农村日常生活中与乙肝相关的歧视情况。我们对来自7个省（区）42个村庄的6538名参与者（≥18岁）进行了研究。许多研究探讨了对人类免疫缺陷病毒（HIV）和丙型肝炎病毒（HCV）感染者的歧视。然而，很少有研究涉及与乙肝相关的歧视。我们发现，对乙肝感染的恐惧而非对其缺乏了解，是导致与乙肝相关歧视的主要原因（尽管知识有限也是一个原因）。值得注意的是，接种乙肝疫苗有助于减少歧视。此外,对错误的乙肝传播途径误解较少，在歧视中所起的作用比了解正确的乙肝传播途径更为重要。因此，为了减少与乙肝相关的歧视，政策制定者应考虑消除对乙肝的恐惧，加强成人乙肝免疫计划，开展关于乙肝传播途径和非传播途径的大规模教育宣传，并更加关注目标人群。
