At present, the
risk for acquiring
hepatitis B virus (HBV) among
hospital personnel is high. A cross-sectional analytic study of 380
hospital personnel was conducted in a governmental
hospital in Bangkok to investigate HBV sero-
prevalence and to assess
risk factors in order to develop the
risk assessment form for
screening the
occupational risk of HBV among this group. The studied
personnel who had no
histories of HBV
vaccination and
jaundice before working in the
hospital were included by voluntary participation. All studied
personnel were interviewed by using a structured
questionnaire consisted of
risk exposure factors and some medical
histories.
Blood specimens were collected for determining HBV sero-markers (
HBsAg, Anti-HBs, and Anti-HBc) by an
enzyme immunoassay. The
risk factors were analyzed by using
Odds ratio (OR), chi2-test, and multiple
logistic regression. The results revealed that 48.68% were positive for any HBV markers. The
HBsAg positive rate was 3.42%, anti-HBs +/- anti-HBc was 43.16 and 2.11% were positive only anti-HBc. The significant
risk factors from univariate
analysis were age over 30 years (OR=3.15, p<0.0001),
marital status (OR=2.19, p=0.0002), working in
risk ward (OR=2.89, p=0.0274), duration of working over 5 years, (OR=2.81, p<0.0001), a
history of
accident from working (OR=1.58, p=0.0354), and a
history of
needle stick (OR=1.83, p=0.0064). After
multivariate analysis, the significant
risk factors included age over 30 years (OR=2.99, p<0.0001),
sex male (OR=3.05, p=0.0020), working in
risk ward (OR=2.81, p=0.0337), and a
history of
needle stick (OR=2.16, p=0.0030). The
risk assessment form was developed by using
risk scores. The validity was calculated by the Receiving Operating Curve. The
sensitivity of this form was approximately 50% and the
specificity was 80% when the cut-off score at
risk > or = 5 was used.