KNOWLEDGE, ATTITUDE, PRACTICES, RISK PERCEPTION AND UTILIZATION OF HEPATITIS B VACCINATION AMONG HEALTH WORKERS IN SECONDARY HEALTH CARE FACILITIES IN IBADAN

Abstract

Hepatitis B is an inflammation of the liver, usually caused by a viral infection, and sometimes from toxic agents. Hepatitis B virus is highly infectious and easy to transmit from one infected person to another, HBV infection is highly endemic in Nigeria, and its preventive method is vaccination. One major concern that has necessitated this study is the non compliance of health workers to HBV vaccination uptake. Hence this study assessed knowledge, attitude, practices, risk perception and utilization of hepatitis B vaccination among health workers in secondary health care facilities in Ibadan. A cross-sectional study was conducted among 384 health care workers in Ibadan North and South West Local Governments. Thirteen hospitals were selected by multistage sampling technique for equal sampling representation. All consenting health workers were recruited for this study. A self administered semi-structured questionnaire was used, which had both open and close ended questions. Analysis was done using SPSS package version 20. A 12 point scale was developed to analyse knowledge; 0-5 as poor knowledge, 6-9 as fair knowledge, 10-12 as good knowledge. A 7 point perception scale was used to assess perception with 1-4 representing negative perception and 5-7 as positive perception. This also applied to the assessment of attitude on HBV vaccine. An 18 point practice scale was used, using the range 1-5 as low risk healthy practice 6-11 as a moderate unhealthy practice and 12-18 as high risk healthy practice of HBV precaution. The mean age of the respondents was 35.36±10.56. The majority (91.7%) of the respondents were Yoruba. resignation/Status of the participants included medical doctors, nurses, laboratory attendants, and other health workers. More than half (57.0%) of the respondents had a good knowledge on hepatitis B mode of transmission with the mean knowledge score of 2.55±0.53. Slightly more than half of the respondents (54.9/%) had a positive perception of HBV risk. The mean perception score was 1.59±0.49. The attitudinal scale shows that majority of the respondents (58.9%) had positive attitude towards hepatitis B prevention and the mean attitude score of 1.58±0.49. It was observed that majority (74.2%) of the respondents had unhealthy practice with a moderate risk of contracting hepatitis B viral infection and the mean practice score of respondents was 1.97±0.51. There was no significant relationship between knowledge and the overall practice of the respondents (p=0.27) using Chi-square test. Meanwhile, there was a relationship between the hepatitis B vaccine utilisation and educational status (p=0.04), designation (p=0.00), age (p=0.02) using Fisher's Exact Test. The findings of this study shows that there is a low uptake of hepatitis B vaccine among the health workers, most of the respondent had good knowledge, a positive attitude but negative practices, thus, factors such as cost and availability of the vaccine in the health centres, all affect the uptake of the hepatitis B vaccine by health workers. There is a need for sensitization and reorientation of all health workers by the state government through effective communication strategy of health promotion to address this gap.