Assessment of knowledge, practices and associated factors toward prevention of hepatitis B virus infection among students of medicine and health sciences in Debre Berhan University, NorthShewa, Ethiopia: A cross-sectional study

Abstract Background Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is one of the major public health problems in the world. HBV can be transmitted from one infected person to another easily by different mechanism. In our institution, the knowledge and practices of trainees in the health professions towards occupational risk of HBV was not investigated. Thus, the aim of this study was to assess the knowledge and practices toward prevention of HBV infection and identify predictors among students of medicine and health sciences. Methods A cross-sectional study was undertaken. A total of 355 students of healthcare professions were approached for the study using a simple random sampling technique. Data towards HBV was assessed by using a pre validated self-administered structured questionnaire and analyzed by using SPSS version 22.0. Bivariable and multivariable logistic regression was used to identify associated factors with knowledgeand practice. Result Out of 422 distributed questionnaires, 355 were returned with a response rate of 84.12%. Majority of the students 268 (75.49%) were in the age group 20–24 and 279 (78.59%) of the respondents were male. Our study showed that the overall knowledge regarding HBV, its mode of transmission and prevention was high 276 [77.75%; 95%CI= (64.43–91.82)]. Conclusions Our study found that trainees in health profession are at a very high risk of contracting HBV infection during their training owing to the low HBV vaccine uptake rate and high rate of accidental exposure to blood. Thus, we recommend that all students in the health profession should be vaccinated prior to their entry into professional practices.