Assessment of preventive practices towards hepatitis B infection among nursing students in Bangladesh: role of knowledge, attitudes and sociodemographic factors.

BACKGROUND: Globally, hepatitis B infection (HBI) poses a substantial public health concern and healthcare workers, including nursing students, are at a higher risk of contracting this disease. Thus, the study aimed to assess how knowledge, attitudes, and sociodemographic factors are associated with HBI prevention among a sample of Bangladeshi nursing students.

METHODS: A cross-sectional survey was performed among 737 nursing students from the nursing institutes of Khulna and Barishal divisions in Bangladesh from January to April 2023. The data were collected by providing questionnaires (structured questionnaire) in the classroom, following a stratified random sampling process. A model of multinomial logistic regression was used to evaluate the factors linked to HBI prevention practices.

RESULT: The mean (SD) scores were 11.42 (± 2.88) for knowledge, 4.33 (± 1.91) for attitude and 4.27 (± 2.056) for practice respectively. Participants' low knowledge (adjusted odds ratio, aOR = 2.562, 95% CI: 1.29-5.07) and poor attitude (aOR = 5.730, 95% CI: 3.19-10.28) regarding HBI were significantly associated with higher likelihood of poor practice towards HBI prevention. Moreover, being 2nd year of nursing students (aOR = 2.147, 95% CI: 1.19-3.86), being aged 19-20 years (aOR = 3.038, 95% CI: 1.30-7.09), being married (aOR = 0.320, 95%CI: 0.13-0.82) and having a family history of HBI (aOR = 0.134, 95%CI: 0.05-0.36) were significantly associated with poor practices of HBI prevention among study participants.

CONCLUSION: The knowledge, attitude and practice scores of the nursing students on HBI prevention were suboptimal. We advocate for implementing regular HBI prevention education and policies, free or subsidized services, skill development, proper HBI prevention enforcement and strict professional ethics within nursing colleges. Such efforts should predominantly focus on second-year, aged 19-20 and unmarried nursing students.