Prevalence of Hepatitis B Surface Antigen in US-Born and Foreign-Born Asian/Pacific Islander College Students

Abstract

The prevalence of chronic hepatitis B (HBV) among college-age US-born Asian and Pacific Islanders (A/PI) is not well known. OBJECTIVES To compare the prevalence of hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) seropositivity in US-born to A/PI-born students at a public university. PARTICIPANTS Undergraduate who self-identified themselves as A/PI. RESULTS Of 145 US-born A/PI, 1.4% (C.I. = 0.0%, 3.3%) tested positive for HBsAg compared to 3.3% (C.I. = 0.5%, 6.1%) of the 152 A/PI-born students. Approximately 1/3 of all students were unaware of their HBV vaccination status. CONCLUSIONS HBsAg prevalence among A/PI undergraduates, including US-born, is considerably higher (3–11 times) than the mainstream US population (0.3–0.5%) and supports CDC recommendations for testing all persons of A/PI ancestry, including US-born persons whose parents were born in regions with HBsAg prevalence of ≥8%. Awareness of HBV vaccination status was relatively low and vaccination did not assure that individuals were HBsAg negative.

Debunking the myth: low knowledge levels of HBV infection among Asian American college students

“…[1718192021222326] Knowledge about transmission routes of HBV was especially low, with only 13% of Korean college students correctly answering that HBV is not genetic — A finding that is significantly lower than the 44%-52% found in Lee and colleagues’ study. [17] Lee and others concluded that familial clustering of HBV infection may have been perceived as genetic factors or as an inheritance pattern in families in this ethnic group.…”

“…In other studies, lower levels of knowledge about HBV infection among Asian American immigrant populations have been found to be impacted by low education as well as poor English language proficiency and ineffective communication with health care providers and health care educators. [271718192021222326] Compared with immigrant adults in community settings, college students without language barriers were assumed to have increased access to medicine, information and knowledge. However, we found that higher education and English proficiency were not predictors of HBV knowledge.…”

“…[17181920212223] Of the studies that have been conducted, most have focused on AAPI adults in community settings with only a few studies focused on AAPI college students. Moreover, those AAPI-focused studies only reached Asian Americans, not Pacific Islanders, and also did not report on ethnic sub-groups.…”