Analysis of Knowledge, Attitude & Practices about Vaccination Against Hepatitis-B among Medical Students of Nishtar Hospital, Multan-Pakistan

Abstract

Background of study: Being an Asian country, Pakistan has a high ratio of population infected with the HBV. Various studies carried out in Pakistan have clearly showed that medical students do not have sufficient knowledge about blood borne diseases. Health care workers are predisposed to higher risks of contracting HBV as it is transmitted through blood and body fluids and accidental contact with these fluids is inevitable while treating the patients. This risk is even higher amongst medical students during their clinical years as they have inadequate experience and skills and the exposure to contaminated fluids becomes far more likely. Objectives of study: To determine knowledge, attitude & practices regarding vaccination against HBV among   MBBS 4^th years students of Nishtar Medical College, Multan. To determine the frequency of 4^th year students vaccinated against HBVMaterial and Methods: It is a cross sectional study. The sample of study was 167 students. The data was collected through a structured questionnaire.Results: Out of the 167 students who took part in the research,87 were females while 80 were males. Among them, 73(43%) were Day scholars while 94 (57%) were Hostilities. Out of the females,45(54.3%) had a complete knowledge of the route of transmission of HBV while from the males only 38 (45.7%) had the complete knowledge. However, the number of students vaccinated against HBV were almost equal with 55 boys and 65 girls. Among males, the families of 28 students were not vaccinated against HBV while among females 27 did not have their families vaccinated.Conclusions: From our analysis we concluded that females have a good knowledge about HBV than males while the ratio of students vaccinated against HBV is also more than females.  We suggest that health education on Hepatitis-B should be provided and vaccination programs should be held more frequently among the students.

Keywords: Transmission of HBV, Hepatitis, Vaccination, Knowledge, Attitude.