Hepatitis B virus seroprevalence and risk assessment among personnel of a governmental hospital in Bangkok

At present, the risk for acquiring hepatitis B virus (HBV) among hospital personnel is high. A cross-sectional analytic study of 380 hospital personnel was conducted in a governmental hospital in Bangkok to investigate HBV sero-prevalence and to assess risk factors in order to develop the risk assessment form for screening the occupational risk of HBV among this group. The studied personnel who had no histories of HBV vaccination and jaundice before working in the hospital were included by voluntary participation. All studied personnel were interviewed by using a structured questionnaire consisted of risk exposure factors and some medical histories. Blood specimens were collected for determining HBV sero-markers (HBsAg, Anti-HBs, and Anti-HBc) by an enzyme immunoassay. The risk factors were analyzed by using Odds ratio (OR), chi2-test, and multiple logistic regression. The results revealed that 48.68% were positive for any HBV markers. The HBsAg positive rate was 3.42%, anti-HBs +/- anti-HBc was 43.16 and 2.11% were positive only anti-HBc. The significant risk factors from univariate analysis were: age over 30 years (OR=3.15, p<0.0001), marital status (OR=2.19, p=0.0002), working in risk ward (OR=2.89, p=0.0274), duration of working over 5 years, (OR=2.81, p<0.0001), a history of accident from working (OR=1.58, p=0.0354), and a history of needle stick (OR=1.83, p=0.0064). After multivariate analysis, the significant risk factors included age over 30 years (OR=2.99, p<0.0001), sex: male (OR=3.05, p=0.0020), working in risk ward (OR=2.81, p=0.0337), and a history of needle stick (OR=2.16, p=0.0030). The risk assessment form was developed by using risk scores. The validity was calculated by the Receiving Operating Curve. The sensitivity of this form was approximately 50% and the specificity was 80% when the cut-off score at risk > or = 5 was used.