Hyun Sarah, Lee Seulgi, Ventura William R, McMenamin Joseph
Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA, USA.
Holy Name Medical Center, Teaneck, NJ, USA.
J Immigr Minor Health. 2018 Aug;20(4):943-950. doi: 10.1007/s10903-017-0609-1.
Hepatitis B (HB) affects 240 million people around the world, and children and young adults make up a large proportion of the infected population. Approximately 1 million people die from HB each year. Despite the seriousness of HB and its complications, many are poorly linked to clinical care. A lack of health literacy may be a critical barrier hindering access to HB care for adults as well as children in these populations. We, therefore, performed a survey to assess the level of knowledge of HB among Korean American parents. The survey was conducted on 521 Korean American adults who attended community-based HB awareness campaigns held at various locations throughout the metropolitan New York area between January 2015 and November 2016. Of these, 296 parents, who had children between ages 1 and 30, were identified. All participants were asked a series of questions regarding various aspects of HB and were evaluated on the basis of their awareness on each subject. A separate questionnaire was also employed to obtain demographic characteristics of the participants. The study revealed a significant deficit of knowledge of HB in most aspects the survey evaluated. Although the majority of the participants knew that HB is a liver disease, and many of them had been screened for HB, they had a poor understanding of vaccination, screening, their own HB status, modes of HBV transmission, and the consequences and treatment of HB. The participants also had a low level of awareness of their own children's HB status. This study demonstrates a low level of knowledge of HB among Korean American parents electing to attend a hepatitis education program. In addition, many parents are not aware of their children's screening and immune (or non-immune) status. The lack of health literacy may contribute to poor health access in HB care, not only in adults but also in children. This suggests an urgent need for education on HB in Korean American parents as well as in young children.
全球有2.4亿人感染乙肝，儿童和年轻人在感染人群中占很大比例。每年约有100万人死于乙肝。尽管乙肝及其并发症很严重，但许多患者与临床护理的联系不佳。健康素养的缺乏可能是阻碍这些人群中的成人和儿童获得乙肝护理的关键障碍。因此，我们进行了一项调查，以评估韩裔美籍父母对乙肝的了解程度。该调查针对2015年1月至2016年11月期间在纽约大都会区各地参加社区乙肝宣传活动的521名韩裔美籍成年人进行。其中，确定了296名有1至30岁孩子的父母。所有参与者都被问及一系列关于乙肝各个方面的问题，并根据他们对每个主题的了解程度进行评估。还使用了一份单独的问卷来获取参与者的人口统计学特征。研究表明，在调查评估的大多数方面，对乙肝的了解存在显著不足。尽管大多数参与者知道乙肝是一种肝脏疾病，而且他们中的许多人已经接受过乙肝筛查，但他们对疫苗接种、筛查、自己的乙肝状况、乙肝病毒传播方式以及乙肝的后果和治疗了解甚少。参与者对自己孩子的乙肝状况的知晓程度也很低。这项研究表明，选择参加肝炎教育项目的韩裔美籍父母对乙肝的了解程度较低。此外，许多父母不知道自己孩子的筛查和免疫（或非免疫）状况。健康素养的缺乏可能导致乙肝护理中健康获取不佳，不仅在成人中如此，在儿童中也是如此。这表明迫切需要对韩裔美籍父母以及幼儿进行乙肝教育。
