Risk factors associated with hepatitis B virus infection among pregnant women attending the antenatal care unit of the Bamenda Regional Hospital

OBJECTIVES: Approximately 257 million people are infected with hepatitis B virus (HBV) especially in the middle and low-income countries, despite the Global Health Sector Strategy on viral hepatitis 2016–2021 which aims to eliminate viral hepatitis as a public health threat by 2030. Hepatitis B virus (HBV) remains a common public health problem in Cameroon with a high prevalence among pregnant women. Therefore, this study was designed to assess risk factors associated with hepatitis B virus infection among pregnant women attending the antenatal care unit of the Bamenda Regional Hospital. STUDY DESIGN: The study was a health facility-based cross-sectional study carried out from March to May 2020. The inclusion criteria were all pregnant women who came for their first visit. METHODS: A well-structured questionnaire and laboratory test methods were used to collect data from 221 pregnant women who were consecutively enrolled in the study. The OnSite HBsAg Rapid Test (source: CTK Biotech, Inc. REF: R0040), was used to detect HBsAg in serum. Both descriptive statistics and Chi-square (and Fisher's exact) test were used for data analysis. RESULTS: The prevalence of HBV infection among pregnant women was 4.98% (11/221). Although knowledge, attitude and practice towards HBV by pregnant women were not significantly associated with the risk of infection, there were higher odds of poor practice (P = 0.0152) and attitudes (P = 0.0016) among those without knowledge on HBV infection. CONCLUSIONS: Free of charge vaccination for those with negative HBsAg test results and extensive health education campaigns against HBV is recommended among pregnant women attending the antenatal care unit of the Bamenda Regional Hospital.