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Healthcare personnel specially nursing staff represents a high risk population ... the study was to assess the level of preventive practices regarding Hepatitis B ...
South East Asia Journal Of Public Health ISSN: 2220-9476 ISSN: 2313-531X (Online)

Public Health

Original Research

Knowledge and preventive practices regarding Hepatitis B among nurses in some selected hospitals of Dhaka city, Bangladesh Nadira Mehriban1, GU Ahsan2, Tajul Islam3 1

Assistant Professor, Department of Public Health, Daffodil International University, Dhaka; 2Professor and Chairman, Department of Public Health, North South University, Dhaka; 3Technical Advisor, JICA, Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Abstract Hepatitis B is the most important infectious occupational hazard which the healthcare workers (HCWs) encounter. Healthcare personnel specially nursing staff represents a high risk population for HBV infection. The objective of the study was to assess the level of preventive practices regarding Hepatitis B among nurses and the factors associated with preventive practices. The study was conducted among 300 nurses both from public and private hospitals using a pretested structured questionnaire adopting a purposive sampling technique. The mean age of the respondents was 29.7±5.8 and majority of them (83.7%) were holding Diploma degrees with (83.3%) designated as staff nurse. About 59.7% were married and 94.3% were females. One third of the respondents (34.3%) were from public institution and 65.7% from private institution. It was revealed from the study that (67.3%) of the respondents had adequate level of knowledge on Hepatitis B but only half of them (49.3%) had good level of preventive practices. Bivariate analysis showed association between institution, income, age, religion, knowledge and level of preventive practice (P