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©The Author(s) 2018. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
Cross-sectional study to determine viral hepatitis knowledge in different urban populations in Brazil
Helena Medina Cruz, Jakeline Ribeiro Barbosa, Jeová Keny Baima Colares, Antonio Henrique Almeida de Moraes Neto, Maria de Fátima Leal Alencar, Francisco Inácio Bastos, Jurema Corrêa da Mota, Filipe Aníbal Carvalho-Costa, Claudia Alexandra Pontes Ivantes, Lia Laura Lewis-Ximenez, Livia Melo Villar
Helena Medina Cruz, Jakeline Ribeiro Barbosa, Lia Laura Lewis-Ximenez, Livia Melo Villar, Laboratory of Viral Hepatitis, Oswaldo Cruz Institute, Fiocruz, Rio de Janeiro 21040360, Brazil
Jakeline Ribeiro Barbosa, Jeová Keny Baima Colares, Postgraduate Program in Pathology, Federal University of Ceará, Fortaleza, Ceará 60020181, Brazil
Jeová Keny Baima Colares, Postgraduate Program in Medical Sciences, University of Fortaleza, Ceará 60430160, Brazil
Antonio Henrique Almeida de Moraes Neto, Maria de Fátima Leal Alencar, Laboratory of Innovations in Therapies, Teaching and Bioproducts, Oswaldo Cruz Institute, Fiocruz, Rio de Janeiro 21040360, Brazil
Francisco Inácio Bastos, Jurema Corrêa da Mota, Institute of Communication and Scientific Information and Technology for Health, Oswaldo Cruz Foundation, Rio de Janeiro 21040900, Brazil
Filipe Aníbal Carvalho-Costa, Laboratory of Epidemiology and Molecular Systematics, Oswaldo Cruz Institute, Fiocruz, Rio de Janeiro 21040900, Brazil
Claudia Alexandra Pontes Ivantes, Orientation and Counselling Centre, Curitiba, Paraná 80810070, Brazil
Author contributions: Villar LM conceived the study; Cruz HM and Villar LM designed the research and study protocol; Baima Colares JK, de Moraes Neto AH, Carvalho-Costa FA, Ivantes CA and Lewis-Ximenez LL carried out the participant selection and recruitment; Cruz HM, Barbosa JR and Alencar MF performed the application of questionnaire; Cruz HM and Villar LM performed the analysis and interpretation of the data; Bastos FI and da Mota JC performed the statistical analysis; Cruz HM and Villar LM drafted the manuscript; Barbosa JR, de Moraes Neto AH and Carvalho-Costa FA critically revised the manuscript for intellectual content. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Institutional review board statement: The study was reviewed and approved by Fiocruz Ethics Committee.
Informed consent statement: All study participants provided informed written consent prior to study enrollment.
Conflict-of-interest statement: There are no conflicts of interest to report.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
STROBE statement: The manuscript was revised according to the STROBE statement.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Livia Melo Villar, PhD, Research Scientist, Viral Hepatitis Laboratory, Oswaldo Cruz Institute, Helio and Peggy Pereira Pavillion - Ground Floor - Room B09, Fiocruz Av 4365 Manguinhos, Rio de Janeiro 210360040, Brazil. lvillar@ioc.fiocruz.br
Telephone: +55-21-25621918
Received: April 18, 2018
Peer-review started: April 18, 2018
First decision: May 11, 2018
Revised: August 22, 2018
Accepted: October 8, 2018
Article in press: October 8, 2018
Published online: November 27, 2018
ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS
Research background
Viral hepatitis is an important public health problem in the world, causing more than 1 million deaths annually. It is important to evaluate viral hepatitis perception to identify the possible gaps and help public health authorities to create strategies to increase access to information about these infections.
Research motivation
Few studies have been done to evaluate viral hepatitis perception in uninfected individuals, particularly in Latin America.
Research objectives
The main aim of this study was to evaluate the viral hepatitis knowledge among individuals from different resource areas and health conditions in Brazil to identify possible gaps and help authorities in the development of prevention and education programs.
Research methods
This was a cross-sectional study, wherein a questionnaire to evaluate viral hepatitis perception was applied among 447 individuals from five different populations in Brazil (Southeast low resource areas, Northeast low resource areas, South Health Center, Northeast Health Center, Southeast Viral Hepatitis Center). The viral hepatitis perception score was created based on the average of correct answers of all participants’ responses (28.7), and associations between sociodemographic characteristics and perception were also evaluated.
Research results
High perception level about viral hepatitis was observed in Southeast Viral Hepatitis Ambulatory and South Health Center compared to Northeast Health Center, Southeast and Northeast low resource areas. According to sociodemographic characteristics, desirable scores were more common among those with secondary education (47.1%), those who declared themselves as white (46.3%), and those who lived in houses with three individuals (25.5%). Population type was associated with knowledge level in multivariate analysis.
Research conclusions
The study demonstrated a low level of perception about viral hepatitis among individuals from low resource areas. Identifying the knowledge gaps in this group could help to create strategies for increasing access to information and consequently reducing the transmission of these diseases.
Research perspectives
This study demonstrates that it is necessary to improve the access to health information about viral hepatitis, especially among residents of low-resource settings. It is important to conduct a random sampling evaluation of larger numbers of individuals to confirm the results observed. A questionnaire could help to conduct these studies, the same as was used in the present work.
