UPTAKE OF HEPATITIS b VIRUS VACCINE AND ASSOCIATED FACTORS AMONG NURSES IN HARAR TOWN PUBLIC HEALTH FACILITIES, HARAR ETHIOPIA

Abstract

Globally there are about 360 million chronic carriers of hepatitis B virus and over one million people die each year. HBV vaccine is the most effective method of prevention. It provides 90–100% protection since the year 1982. Nurses are more exposed to the danger of acquiring the HBV infection; due to their contact with blood or body fluids of infected persons, spent more times with patients than other health care workers and working in different departments. Uptake of hepatitis B vaccine and associated factors among nurses in the study area was not investigated. Objective: This study was aimed at assessing uptake of hepatitis B vaccine and associated factors among the nurses in public health facilities in Harar town from October to November, 2020, Harar Eastern Ethiopia. Method: A facility based cross sectional study was conducted among 224 nurses permanently recruited and working in Hiwot Fana Specialized University Hospital, Jugal Hospital, Jinela Health Center, Arategna Health Center and Amirnur Health Center. After the selection of these health facilities by lottery method, nurses were selected by using simple random sampling from each health facility proportionally. Socio-demographic characteristics and other descriptive variables were collected through self administered pre-tested questionnaire. Data was entered in Epi-data version 3.1 and statistical analysis was computed by SPSS version 22. Logistic regression analysis was used to examine the association between independent variables and uptake of HBV vaccine. Odds ratio (AOR) with 95% CI was used as a measure of strength of association and p-value less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Risk perception of HBV infection and knowledge of HBV vaccine was measured by taking mean and standard deviation as cut off point. Result: A total of 221 staffs nurses were participated in this study and their ages varied between 20 and 60 years and more than half of the respondents 130(58.8%) were female. Among the study participants, 93(42.1%) were fully vaccinated. Being screened for HBV was associated with uptake of HBV vaccine with AOR=9.81(4.75-20.29) and p-value= 0.001. Conclusion and Recommendation: The finding of this study showed low rate of HBV vaccine coverage among nurses and ABsAg was statically associated with uptake of HBV vaccine.. Therefore, vaccine provision should be implemented for nurses