Prevalence and factors associated with chronic Hepatitis B infection among adults in the Central Highland, Vietnam

Objective: The study was conducted to estimate the prevalence of chronic hepatitis B infection and related factors among adult population in Central Highland, 2018. Methods: The study applied the cross-sectional descriptive design with the combination of structured interview and serological blood tests. There were 2428 respondents in 03 provinces, namely Kon Tum, Gia Lai, Dak Nong included in the study which was conducted from September to December 2018. Results: The prevalence of hepatitis B infection among adults in Central Highland was 11.2% with the positive uniformity among provinces in the region. The findings also showed that male adults, farmers and those who have relatives with liver disease and experienced the kidney dialysis possessed a higher rate of hepatitis B virus infection than the one of other groups. The findings also showed that the respondents had a low uptake of the vaccine among infected group (6.3%). Study subjects with vaccination were less affected by hepatitis B virus infection rate than the ones without vaccination. Conclusions: The high prevalence of chronic hepatitis B in the Central Highland indicates that it needs much more attention of Ministry of Health and local authorities for prevention of infection through mother-to-child transmission and early infection due to late immunization and more rescue investment for diagnostic, evaluation, follow up and treatment of people with chronic HBV infection. The consideration regarding occupations, family history of liver diseases is also required for during the intervention implementation.