A STUDY STUDENTS IN ON THE KNOWLEDGE OF HEPATITIS B VIRUS AND PRACTICE OF ITS VACCINATION AMONG MEDICAL ABSUTH
Abstract
BACKGROUND
INTRODUCTION: Hepatitis B virus has claimed a lot of lives worldwide. Once an individual is infected it can continue as a chronic infection to cause liver cirrhosis and ultimately liver cancer. The objective of this study was aimed at assessing the knowledge of hepatitis b virus and practice of its vaccination among medical students of Abia State University Teaching hospital, Aba.
METHODOLOGY: A total of 359 medical students were interviewed using a self-administered questionnaire to ascertain their knowledge of Hepatitis B virus and practice of its vaccination. The study population will comprise of male and female medical students in ABSUTH, Aba, Abia state. This population will be made up those between 19-41 years. This study is a cross sectional study that will be carried out in Abia State University Teaching Hospital, Aba(ABSUTH).
RESULTS: In this study,it was observed that most participants in this study 232(64.6%) were within the age groups of 21 to 25, while 81(22.6%) are within the age range of 26 to 30 and so on. The minimum age is 19 and the maximum is 41, while the mean age is 25, 191(53%) were male while 168(47%) were female, only 21(6%) were married, the remaining 338(94%) were single. Most of the participants 328(91.4%) were Igbos, reason being that our focus site ABSUTH medical school is in Aba in Abia State which is in east, and its dominated by mostly Igbos. Most of them 349(97.4%) are Christians which is also due to the location. Concerning their academic level, it was observed that 181(50.4%) students are in 400level, 81(22.6%) are in 500level while 97(27%) students are in 600level.The knowledge score is 48.2 %, it is below 50%, so it a bad and poor score.
CONCLUSION: This study has shown that there is poor knowledge of hepatitis b virus, its mode of transmission and how it can be prevented hence the resultant poor attitude towards its vaccination.
KEYWORDS: Vaccination, Knowledge of Hepatitis B virus, Medical students, Practice
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