Abstract

AWARENESS AND KNOWLEDGE OF HEPATITIS B AMONG MEDICAL STUDENTS: A CROSS SECTIONAL STUDY

Naveed Ali Siddiqui*, Tauseef Ahmed, Duaa Qureshi, Sanjana Bhagwani, Yusra Hasan Ali and Rafia Javed

ABSTRACT

Objective: Health-care employees are at risk of contracting hepatitis B. Medical students must have a thorough understanding of hepatitis B virus (HBV) transmission and prevention. The purpose of this study was to measure preclinical year medical students knowledge and awareness of hepatitis B. Study design: Cross-sectional study. Setting: The study was conducted at different private medical colleges, Karachi in August 2020 till January 2021. Materials and Methods: This is a cross-sectional descriptive research. All preclinical year medical students were given a predesigned self-administered questionnaire about hepatitis B knowledge and awareness. Microsoft Excel and SPSS software, version 22, were used to gather, tabulate, and analyze the data. The data was presented in the form of numbers and percentages. Results: Only 132 students out of a total of 201 agreed to take part in the research. The majority of the students (86.3%) were aware that they had HBV. Many students were aware that blood transfusion (79.5%) and the use of contaminated needles and syringes (67.4%) are two of the most common methods of transmission. Other mechanisms of transmission, on the other hand, were unknown to be less than 41% of the pupils. More over half of the students lacked awareness about hepatitis B infection's clinical characteristics and consequences. Conclusion: Hepatitis B knowledge was found to be lacking among preclinical year medical students in this investigation. They are at a high risk of contracting HBV infection later in life when practicing medicine. As a result, a well-structured teaching program must be implemented in the preclinical year to ensure total awareness of hepatitis B among medical students.

Keywords: Cirrhosis, jaundice, vaccination and blood transfusion.