Hepatitis B Virus (HBV) Infection in Pregnancy: Knowledge and Practice of Care Providers in Nigeria

Abstract

Purpose: To determine the practice of obstetric care providers regarding routine screening for hepatitis B virus infection, and to assess their knowledge of the management of the positive pregnant women. Methods: A cross sectional descriptive study of obstetric care providers in southwestern Nigeria. Mean and standard deviation was used to summarize continuous variables while frequency and percentage was used for categorical variables. Categorical variables were compared with chi-square test and Fisher's exact tests as appropriate; while continuous variables were compared using the t-test. The level of statistical significance was set at P ≤ 0.05. Scoring of the outcome variables for knowledge was done, and the score categorized into good and poor knowledge, depending on if the respondent scored above or below the mean score. Results: Three hundred and eighty-one (67.4%) of the care givers routinely screen pregnant women for the serum marker (HBSAg) of HBV infection. Two hundred and seventy-four (48.5%) of the respondents had good knowledge score of the management of HBV infection in pregnancy. Routine screening for HBV infection was significantly associated with age (p = 0.002), years of practice (p < 0.001), specialty (p = 0.001) and professional cadre (p < 0.001), while knowledge was significantly associated with age (p = 0.012), years of practice (p = 0.003), specialty (p = 0.047) and types of practice (p = 0.014). Conclusion: Screening for HBV infection in pregnant women is not universal in southwestern Nigeria, and the care providers have poor knowledge of the management of the positive mothers.

An appraisal of the prevention of mother-to-child transmission of hepatitis B virus health system in Nigeria

“…Out of the 80% of mothers who received ANC in a study in Nigeria, only 6% of mothers were screened for HBsAg (Sadoh and Eregie, 2014). Some might argue that only those with risk factors should be screened based on costeffectiveness but some studies showed that majority of HBsAg-positive pregnant women in Nigeria had no identifiable risk factor, making routine screening important (Adeyemi et al, 2014;Okusanya et al, 2013).…”

“…Studies showed that the knowledge of HBV management among health workers in Nigeria is low as only 32% of health workers were aware of the timing of HB-BD administration (Adeyemi et al, 2014;Nwokediuko, 2011). There are also misconceptions held by health workers concerning use of vaccine vials which lead to many infants missing the HB-BD, despite delivery in the hospital (Sadoh and Sadoh, 2014).…”