Nurses' Knowledge toward Hepatitis B and Hepatitis C in Guilan, Iran

Knowledge, attitudes, and practice about hepatitis B infection among primary health care nurses in Buraidah, Qassim Region, Saudi Arabia

Background

Nurses are at increased risk of acquiring HB infection due to occupational exposure. To control this infection, basic knowledge and a positive attitude toward HB prevention are required. This study was conducted to assess knowledge, attitude, and practice of HB infection preventative measures among primary healthcare nurses in Buraidah, Saudi Arabia.

Materials and Methods

A descriptive cross-sectional survey was conducted from February to March 2018. A self-administered questionnaire was distributed to all nurses working in primary healthcare centers. Data were analyzed with descriptive and inferential statistics.

Results

Of the 335 eligible participants, 262 (78%) responded to the survey. Overall, 41.2% of participants had a moderate level of knowledge about HB; however, there was no significant difference in knowledge between males and females. The majority (94.7%) had positive attitudes toward HB. Male nurses displayed significantly more positive attitudes than female nurses (P = 0.0075). Most of the respondents practiced good compliance with universal precautions. The majority (85.5%) were vaccinated, of whom 72.3% were completely vaccinated. About 14.1% of nurses were exposed to high-risk HB conditions; of these, 40.5% immediately reported their injuries.

Conclusions

The majority of participants had moderate knowledge and a positive attitude but still need more information about HB prevention. Improving knowledge, attitudes, and good practices regarding hepatitis B prevention will contribute to increased awareness among nurses, leading to improvement in healthcare services.

Enhancing Hepatitis A and B Vaccinations Through Electronic Clinical Decision Support Systems and Staff Education in a Correctional Facility

BACKGROUND

Despite the prevalence and risks for hepatitis A virus (HAV) and hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection and the availability of safe and effective vaccines, HAV/HBV vaccinations are disproportionately low in jails. This quality improvement project evaluated the effectiveness of clinical decision support systems: electronic standing orders to nurses, clinical alerts to nurses and healthcare providers, and secondarily staff education in enhancing HAV and HBV vaccination and knowledge of hepatitis infection.

METHODS

We distributed a validated self-report hepatitis knowledge questionnaire (α = 0.7-0.8) before and after an educational presentation to nurses, nurse practitioners, and physicians ( N = 26) at a Northeastern state jail and then embedded electronic clinical alerts and standing orders in the electronic medical record. The questionnaire assessed pre- and posteducation knowledge scores. The number of vaccine status screenings and vaccinations was retrieved from the electronic medical record 3 months pre- and post-implementation. Descriptive statistics and the Wilcoxon signed-ranks test were used for data analysis.

RESULTS

Twenty-one participants completed the pretest, 18 attended the educational intervention, and 15 completed the posttest. Vaccine status screening increased by 97.5%, and HAV and HBV vaccinations increased by 8.7%. Knowledge scores improved significantly post-intervention ( p = 0.04), with an effect size of r = 0.67).

DISCUSSION/CONCLUSION

Using the Donabedian quality of care model, we showed that quality initiatives are feasible in a jail setting. Implementing a clinical decision support system and education improved the vaccination rate, which may decrease HAV/HBV incidence in the jail and prevent community spread.

Public awareness and influencing factors regarding hepatitis B and hepatitis C in Chongqing municipality and Chengdu City, China: a cross-sectional study with community residents

OBJECTIVE

Hepatitis B and hepatitis C cause a heavy disease burden in China. This paper aims to investigate the public's knowledge on hepatitis B and hepatitis C in Chongqing municipality and Chengdu City, China.

DESIGN

A cross-sectional study was conducted from December 2016 to April 2017.

SETTING

Two communities from Chongqing and Chengdu were involved in this study.

PARTICIPANTS

Data from 928 community residents were analysed.

OUTCOME

Demographic characteristics, knowledge on hepatitis B and hepatitis C and sources of hepatitis knowledge were obtained from questionnaires. The participants' scores ranged from 0 to 24, and a test score about more than 14.4 (60% of the total score) was defined as sufficient knowledge.

RESULTS

Among the participants, only 36.10% presented sufficient knowledge on hepatitis B and hepatitis C, and about 40% were unaware of the two antidiscrimination policies in China. The sources of information about hepatitis were mainly from doctors and the internet. Unmarried individuals, people with secondary education and above and those with an annual income above US$2108 tended to exhibit a higher level of knowledge on hepatitis B and hepatitis C.

CONCLUSIONS

The community members demonstrated limited awareness and level of knowledge on hepatitis B and hepatitis C, particularly in relation to the antidiscrimination policies. Extensive health education should be provided to the public, particularly to those with low educational status and income.

Capacity building of healthcare workers: Key step towards elimination of viral hepatitis in developing countries

BACKGROUND

Lack of awareness about viral hepatitis (VH) potentially predisposes the healthcare workers (HCWs) to a higher risk of infection and may in turn increase the risk of transmission of the infection to their families and in the community. Thus, combating VH, requires adequate and updated training to the HCWs. With this objective, Project PRAKASH designed a meticulously planned training program, aimed to assess the effect of a one-day training on VH among in-service nurses.

METHODS AND MATERIAL

The content and schedule of scientific sessions of the training program were decided by subject experts to improve knowledge, attitude and practice(KAP) related to VH among in-service nurses. A 54-item questionnaire divided into four domains: Transmission and Risk Factors; Prevention; Treatment; Pathophysiology and Disease Progression were used to assess the KAP related to VH. The questionnaire consisted of four sections: demographic details, knowledge(30-items), attitude(12-items) and practice(12-itmes) with a total score of 30, 60 and 24 respectively in each section. The pre-post knowledge assessment was done and impact assessment survey was undertaken among the participants who completed six months post-training period. Paired-t-test was used to assess the effect of training on knowledge using SPSSv-22.

RESULTS

A total of 5253 HCWs were trained through 32 one-day trainings, however data for 4474 HCWs was included in final pre-post knowledge analysis after removing the missing/incomplete data. Mean age of participants was 33.7±8.4 with median experience of 8(IQR: 3-13). Mean improvement in knowledge score was found to be significant (p<0.001) with mean knowledge score of 19.3±4.4 in pre-test and 25.7±3.9 in the post-test out of 30. Impact assessment survey suggested change in attitude and practice of HCWs.

CONCLUSION

The one-day training programs helped the in-service nurses to enhance their knowledge related to viral hepatitis. The study provided a roadmap to combating viral hepatitis through health education among HCWs about viral hepatitis.

Knowledge, attitude, and practice towards Hepatitis B infection among nurses and midwives in two maternity hospitals in Khartoum, Sudan

Background

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection creates a global health burden with significant morbidity and mortality. Healthcare workers, including nurses and midwives, are at higher risk of acquiring the disease. While health-related behaviours are affected by different aspects of knowledge, attitude, and practices (KAP), there are few studies examining the KAP level of healthcare workers towards HBV infection in Sudan. The purpose of this study was to examine the KAP level of nurses and midwives towards HBV virus infection in Khartoum, Sudan.

Methods

A cross-sectional descriptive hospital-based study was conducted in two public maternity hospitals (Saudi and Saad Abul-Eleella hospitals) in Khartoum state of, Sudan. A pre-tested structured questionnaire was constructed and implemented to examine KAP towards HBV infection. Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version of 21 was utilized to conduct statistical analysis and examine the data at hand. Chi-square test was used implemented to determine the relationship between categorical variables.

Results

A total of 110 nurses and midwives from the both hospitals participated in this study. More than half of the respondents (58.2%) had an average level of knowledge, two-third of the respondents had a safe practice, and the majority of the respondents had a favourable attitude towards HBV preventive measures. Approximately half of the participants (51.8%) had a history of needle stick injuries. Half of the participants had inaccurate concepts about post exposure prophylaxis to HBV infection, while more than half of the nurses and midwives didn’t complete the vaccination schedule for HBV.

Conclusion

Most of the nurses and midwives in Saudi and Saad Abul-Eleella hospitals were aware of HBV infection. However, a significant proportion of the participants lack the requisite knowledge about post exposure management. The study revealed a low level of HBV vaccination coverage rate and a high rate of needle stick injuries. Further strategies for preventing workplace exposure, training programs on HBV infection, including post exposure prophylaxis, and increasing vaccination coverage rate of all HCWS are highly recommended.

Needlestick Injuries among Healthcare Workers: Why They Do Not Report their Incidence?

Background

Needlestick injuries (NSIs) among healthcare workers (HCWs) pose an important health challenge and several pieces of evidence show that in many cases HCWs do not report the injury.

Materials and Methods

This multicenter descriptive cross-sectional study was performed in eight teaching hospitals of Rasht, Iran. Using consecutive sampling methods, 1010 nurses were enrolled from October 2014 to January 2015. A three-part self-administered questionnaire was used. It included questions on demographic features, NSI-related questions, and questions on the knowledge of hepatitis B and C viruses (HCV, HBV).

Results

Among the 1010 participants, 580 (57.42%) showed a positive history of NSI; the total number of occurrences of NSI was 914. The major item causing NSI was the syringe with needle (315; 34.47%). In this way, NSIs occurred most frequently during recapping and injection [339 (37.10%) and 147 (16.10%), respectively]. Only 92 (10.07%) of all NSI positive participations had referred to the infection control units of their hospitals. The others mostly answered the question of "Why did you not report the incident?" with being too busy at work at the time of injury (140; 27.58%). The results showed that among participants with <5 years elapsed since their vaccination, the risk of NSI reduced to 60% [p < 0.02, odds ratio (OR) = 0.40, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.20-0.80].

Conclusions

It seems that NSI is still a major problem among nurses. Correspondingly, HCWs do not take the reporting system seriously and training them requires an ongoing activity in all hospitals.

The role of the Primary Healthcare Network in Iran in hepatitis C virus elimination by 2030

The World Health Organization (WHO) has estimated that about 71 million people in the world have chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) and 399,000 die every year due to cirrhosis and cancer caused by HCV. Despite efforts to prevent and control hepatitis, there are still many barriers. In September 2000, during a summit in New York organised by the United Nations, world leaders agreed on a set of achievable targets within a limited timeframe, with the goal of combating poverty, hunger, disease, illiteracy, destruction of the environment and of improving the status of women by 2015; these were known as the Millennium Development Goals. The Primary Health Care Network (PHCN) in Iran has played a very important role in health promotion but its achievements could be enhanced further by improving performance and implementing further changes. The WHO strives to achieve goals of sustainable development by 2030 in many countries, thereby raising awareness, encouraging greater community participation, mobilising resources, using evidence-based policies, and increasing screening services, care and treatment. The concept of the PHCN has been very successful in health promotion in Iran, and has provided a basis for accessible and high-quality services for all. Achieving HCV elimination by 2030 could be achieved with the support of the PHCN, and changes in management with regard to screening, prevention and treatment practices.