Hepatitis B Virus infection and its modes of prevention among clinical students of Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife, Nigeria.

BACKGROUND

Hepatitis B is a major global health problem and is a major infectious and occupational hazard for health workers, especially doctors, nurses, dentists and laboratory staff, including those who are under training, because of exposure to patients' body fluids during clinical activities. Clinical students are also at risk of HBV infection during their training in medical school. HBV vaccination status is very low among medical students in Nigeria

AIM

This study assessed the knowledge of clinical students of the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife about hepatitis B virus infection and its modes of prevention.

METHODS

A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted among all 594 clinical students of OAU using a pretested, self-administered, semi-structured questionnaire. Data were analysed and summarized using descriptive and inferential statistics (logistic regression).

RESULTS

Four hundred and thirty (72.4%) respondents correctly identified four modes of transmission, while 470 (79%) respondents reported vaccination as a mode of prevention of HBV infection. Of all the respondents, 61.6% had ever received Hepatitis B virus vaccine, while only 39.2% of the respondents had received at least three doses of HBV vaccine. At bivariate level, gender (χ2 = 23.685, p < 0.001) and level of study (χ2 = 7.383, p < 0.05) were significantly associated with HBV vaccine uptake. At multivariate level, gender (OR = 2.58, 95% CI = 1.80-3.7 1) and level of study (OR = 1.71, 95% CI =1.14-2.54) remained significantly associated with HBV vaccine uptake.

CONCLUSION

The study concluded that clinical students had poor knowledge of safe sexual practices and post-exposure prophylaxis as preventive measures. The uptake of HBV vaccine was also poor. The significant correlates of vaccine uptake were gender and level of study.