ABSTRACT
Background: The hepatitis B virus [HBV] poses a health risk to healthcare workerswho are in close proximity to infected individuals. Medical students are a particularlyhigh-risk group due to the lack of an obligatory vaccination program and a post-vaccination screening program to determine immunity status, which results in alack of awareness of and compliance with the HBV vaccine
Methods: This cross-sectional survey was conducted in King Khalid University Hospi-tal [KKUH], a tertiary care academic hospital in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, from November2013 to March 2014. Medical students in their second to fifth years [n = 444; 213 menand 231 women] completed a self-administered questionnaire regarding awarenessof HBV and compliance with the HBV vaccination program in KKUH
Results: Medium to low knowledge levels were present in 53.5% of the participants,and 44.3% reported that they were not compliant with the vaccination programprovided by KKUH. While 93.9% received the HBV vaccine upon entry to medicalschool, only 59.5% received all 3 doses, citing forgetfulness and a busy scheduleas common reasons for the low compliance. There was no association between theknowledge and awareness of the participants and their compliance [p = 0.988]
Conclusion: Medical students had a low level of compliance with the HBV vaccinationprogram, regardless of their knowledge and awareness of the disease and vaccination.We recommend that programs and campaigns be developed to increase the overallawareness of this disease. We also suggest that a mandatory HBV vaccination programshould be implemented to improve the compliance rate among medical students