Knowledge, Attitude and Uptake of Hepatitis B Vaccine among Clinical Medical Students of a Tertiary Institution in Southeast Nigeria

Background: Hepatitis B virus infection is a global public health problem especially in developing countries like Nigeria. Good knowledge of Hepatitis B virus, its infection and positive attitude by the public are key to the prevention of Hepatitis B infection The infection can be prevented with Hepatitis B virus vaccine. This study aimed at assessing the Knowledge, Attitude and Uptake of Hepatitis B virus vaccine among Clinical Medical Students of Ebonyi State University, Abakaliki.

Materials and Methods: The study is descriptive cross-sectional in design and comprised of 187 Clinical Medical Students selected by consecutive sampling technique. Data was collected using pretested, semi-structured, self-administered questionnaires and analysed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) for Microsoft window version 22.

Results: The mean age of the respondents was 25.6 ± 3.2 years. About 80.7% of the respondents (Clinical Medical Students of EBSU) had good knowledge of HBV infection. Also, all the respondents (100%) had good knowledge of HBV vaccine. Nearly, 74.3% of our respondents were concerned about being infected with HBV. However only 55.6% of them had tested for HBV surface antigen. Also 84.2% of the respondents said they would like to be vaccinated. Although the participants in this study had positive attitude towards HBV vaccination, only 29.4% of the respondents had received HBV vaccine. Most of those vaccinated received incomplete doses of the vaccine while only very few received complete doses of the vaccine.

Conclusions: There should be sustained health education to Clinical Medical Students on the need to be vaccinated against HBV and also HBV vaccine should be made free to the general public so as to remove the challenge created by cost.