மருத்துவ ஆராய்ச்சி இதழ்

Knowledge, Attitude and Practice towards Hepatitis B Prevention Among Medical Students at Copperbelt University, Ndola Zambia

Abstract

Chris Halwiindi

Introduction: Hepatitis B viral infection is a viral infection that attacks the liver and can cause acute and chronic disease with systemic manifestation. The infection is one of the major causes of morbidity and premature death and contributes substantially to the escalating costs of health care globally and locally. The main objective of this study is to assess the knowledge, attitude, and practice regarding viral hepatitis B infection prevention among medical students at Ndola Teaching Hospital in Ndola, Zambia. Methodology: An analytical cross sectional study was conducted among medical students studying bachelor of medicine and surgery and bachelor of dental surgery at the Copperbelt University School of medicine and Ndola Teaching Hospital. The total number of patients that met the inclusion criteria and thus enrolled in the study was 162. Ethical approval was obtained from Tropical Disease Research Centre (TDRC) and permission to conduct the study among the clinical students was granted by the copperbelt university school of medicine. Data was collected from clinical students with a use of a questionnaire and it was entered and analyzed with the use of SPSS 23. Results: The assessment, the majority of students demonstrated that they had good knowledge (91.4%), attitude (75.9%) and practice (90.7%) towards HBV prevention. Furthermore, the findings showed that there was correlation between the level of practice and knowledge, year of study and attitude toward HBV infection prevention with the P-values of 0.018, 0.028 and 0.003 respectively. Conclusion: The levels of knowledge attitude and practice among participants were high. With this outcome, we recommend that the current system of training among clinical students with regard to HBV infection prevention should continue with more emphasis on developing the right attitude.