Awareness of chronic hepatitis b and its barriers to treatment in patient with HBV infection.

Abstract

Objective: To determine knowledge of chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) and barrier to treatment among patients with HBV infection. Study Design: Cross-sectional study. Setting: Department of Outpatient Clinics, Gastroenterology, Liaquat National Hospital. Period: March 2024 to June 2024. Methods: Patients of age 18 years and above of either gender and Hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) positive more than six months were included in this study. self-structured questionnaire was developed after performing a detailed literature search. The criteria of adequate knowledge was to answer at least 50% of correct responses. Results: Total 247 patients were approached for this study, out of which 230 gave consent to the part of study and completed this survey. Hence data was analyzed for these 230 patients. Mean age of patients was 43.4 ± 12 years. More than half of them were males (57.4%). Around three-fourth of participants were diagnosed with HBV upon symptoms manifestation (72.6%). Nearly half had knowledge that HBV is a viral infection (55.2%). Using threshold of 4 and above, adequate knowledge was seen in 68.7% patients. Around quarter were vaccinated according to EPI schedule (23.5%). Half of patients said they did not get vaccination because of affordability issues (50.9%). Few also said that they were afraid of vaccine (13.2%). Conclusion: The present study analyzed that our HBV patients were not knowledgeable about the chronic HBV virus and patients were not willing for vaccination. Steps should be taken by policy makers and healthcare providers to address this gap.