Hepatitis B vaccination awareness and biological risk

Background: Hepatitis B virus is a possible risk in people exposed to biological risk at work. Vaccination is the only prevention against infection. Objectives: A population of 1,408 employees of the University of Padua was investigated to define the immunological status for HBV and degree of awareness to hepatitis B vaccination. Methods: The subjects were subdivided according to gender, age (40 or >40 years old), level of education (college graduates or lower), and the extent of biological risk (no and low risk or high risk). Clinical history questionnaire and measurement of hepatitis B markers were carried out. Results: The results showed that 30.5% only of the subjects had been vaccinated; among these, 90.2% showed a measurable level of anti-HBs antibodies, 8.2% showed anti-HBs antibodies lower than 10 IU/L, and 1.6% showed positive markers of previous infection. On the contrary, among non-vaccinated subjects 13.4% were positive for previous infection; in all subjects, prevalence of hepatitis B virus infection was 9.8%. The awareness to hepatitis B vaccination was altogether very low (30.5%), but females (44.2%), subjects less than 40 years of age (43.5%), college graduates (34.1%), and high risk exposed personnel (57.7%) were likely to comply compared to male (odds ratio 2.53), subjects more than 40 years of age (odds ratio 3.57), non-college graduate (odds ratio 1.65), or low risk exposed (odds ratio 13.42). Conclusions: The considered variables appeared to influence awareness to vaccination. Owing to low awareness, an informative campaign was started and 90% of the invited subjects were immunized.