Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices toward Hepatitis B Virus Infection among Students of Medicine in Vietnam.

BACKGROUND

Building capacity in hepatitis B virus prevention and management for medical students and health professionals is one of the pillars of the national viral hepatitis control strategy.

METHODS

A cross-sectional study was conducted at eight medical universities from the northern, central and southern regions of the country between May and November 2020 using a systematic random sampling technique.

RESULTS

Among 2000 participants, 84.2% reported they had been tested for hepatitis B and 83.9% had received the hepatitis B vaccine. The mean knowledge, attitude, practice score was 40.2 out of 54 (74.4%) with only 19.9% of the study participants obtaining a good score. In multivariate analysis, fifth year students, students from central universities, students who had tested positive for hepatitis B and students who had received hepatitis B vaccine or had encountered patients with chronic hepatitis B had significantly higher knowledge score (p < 0.05). The study showed lack of trust in the hepatitis B vaccine safety and lack of confidence in providing counselling, testing and management of patients with chronic hepatitis B.

CONCLUSION

Findings from our research emphasized an immediate need to improve the medical schools' training curriculum in Vietnam to enable students' readiness in hepatitis B prevention and management.