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CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 · Ibnosina Journal of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences 2021; 13(01): 20-31
DOI: 10.4103/ijmbs.ijmbs_140_20
Original Article

Knowledge, attitudes, and practices about hepatitis B among medical and dental students of Karachi

Nazeer Khan
1   Director of Research, Jinnah Sindh Medical University, Karachi
,
Saba Asghar
2   5th Years MBBS Student, Jinnah Sindh Medical University, Karachi
,
Hassaan Ahmed
3   2nd Year Resident, Patel Hospital, Karachi
,
Muhammad Khan
2   5th Years MBBS Student, Jinnah Sindh Medical University, Karachi
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Objective: The objective of the study was to assess the knowledge, attitude, and practices (KAP) about Hepatitis B virus (HBV) among the students of medical and dental colleges of Karachi. Methodology: The cross-sectional study was conducted in five medical and dental colleges of Karachi. Students of the 3rd, 4th, and final year were invited to join the study. The questionnaire included sociodemographic information followed by three sections evaluating the knowledge, attitudes, and practices regarding HBV. Twenty-nine questions were related to knowledge, 11 for attitude, and 4 for practices. Pearson's Chi-square test/Fisher's Exact test and Spearman correlation were utilized to find the association and correlation of knowledge, attitudes, and practices with independent variables. Results: Three hundred and seventy-nine students participated in the study. Two hundred and nine of them (78.9%) were females and 253 (66.8%) students were medical students. Ninety-five percent of the students correctly responded of the causative organism of HBV. Knowledge of MBBS and BDS students for transmission of HBV were significantly different for the questions: “mother to child,” coughing and sneezing' and “kissing.” Almost all the responses regarding complications due to HBV (respiratory failure, stroke, congestive heart failure liver, cirrhosis, colorectal cancer, and spine and bone fracture) received more than 90% of correct answers. In response to contraindication factors for HBV, only “extreme of ages” showed a significant difference between the genders. The percentage of poor, moderate, and good knowledge were 17.4%, 53%, and 29.6% respectively. About 60% of students indicated that they have gone through screening for HBV. About 20% of students indicated that they had experience of needle injury and only 43% of them taken postexposure prophylactic measures. Conclusion: Study revealed that the KAP of medical and dental students of Karachi are satisfactory and have been improved. However, few elements need to be focused in curricula and workshops for further improvement.

Key-words:

Hep B virus - knowledge - attitude and practices study - Karachi - students of medicine and dentistry

Financial support and sponsorship

Nil.




Publication History

Received: 13 November 2020

Accepted: 22 February 2021

Article published online:
14 July 2022

© 2021. The Libyan Authority of Scientific Research and Technologyand the Libyan Biotechnology Research Center. All rights reserved. This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonDerivative-NonCommercial-License,permitting copying and reproductionso long as the original work is given appropriate credit. Contents may not be used for commercial purposes, oradapted, remixed, transformed or built upon. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)

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