Hepatitis B infection remains an important global public health problem. Screening and vaccination of family contacts are among the key interventions to control hepatitis B. The objective of this study was to assess the knowledge on modes of transmission of hepatitis B and the practice of family screening and vaccination among patients with chronic hepatitis B infection who had follow-ups at a tertiary center in Ethiopia. A hospital-based cross-sectional study was conducted at Saint Paul’s Hospital and Millennium Medical College from March to September 2023. Three hundred eighteen patients were included in the study. Data were collected via a questionnaire administered in a face‒to-face interview and analyzed via the software IBM® SPSS® for Windows version 26. Patients with a total score on modes of transmission below the average were classified as having poor knowledge, and those with scores average and above were classified as having good knowledge. Binary logistic regression was used to assess the relationships between variables, and a P value < 0.05 was considered to indicate a statistically significant association. Adjusted logistic regression was performed for variables with P values < 0.25 in the unadjusted logistic regression. One hundred sixty-four (51.6%) of the participants were males, and 154 (48.4%) were females. The median age was 36 years. The average knowledge score for modes of transmission was 86.5%. 42% of the patients had poor knowledge. Formal education and urban residence were more likely to be associated with good knowledge, but the effects were not significant. Nearly all (97.2%) of the participants agreed that hepatitis B can be prevented by vaccine, and 98.7% of them also agreed that screening family members is important, but the proportion of participants who had gotten their family members screened and vaccinated was low. The participants were more likely to get their children and spouses screened than their siblings and parents, with only 16% of them getting their parents screened and 22.6% of them getting their siblings screened compared with 61% and 70% for spouses and siblings respectively. Nearly half of the participants had poor knowledge. Family screening and vaccination practices were also not adequate in the study population. Awareness creation programs on hepatitis B modes of transmission and the need for family screening and vaccination need to be strengthened.
Anagaw et al. (Mon,) studied this question.