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. 2017 Nov;24(11):1052-1066.
doi: 10.1111/jvh.12735. Epub 2017 Jul 3.

Racial/ethnic disparities in the prevalence and awareness of Hepatitis B virus infection and immunity in the United States

H S Kim  1 , L Rotundo  1 , J D Yang  2 , D Kim  3 , N Kothari  1 , M Feurdean  1 , C Ruhl  4 , A Unalp-Arida  5
Affiliations

Racial/ethnic disparities in the prevalence and awareness of Hepatitis B virus infection and immunity in the United States

H S Kim et al. J Viral Hepat. 2017 Nov.

Abstract

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection in the United States is the most common among Asians followed by non-Hispanic blacks. However, there have been few studies that describe HBV infection and immunity by racial group. Our study aimed to assess racial/ethnic disparities in the prevalence and awareness of HBV infection and immunity using nationally representative data. In the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2011-2014, 14 722 persons had HBV serology testing. We estimated the prevalence of HBV infection, past exposure, and immunity by selected characteristics and calculated adjusted odds ratios using survey-weighted generalized logistic regression. Awareness of infection and vaccination history was also investigated. The overall prevalence of chronic HBV infection, past exposure and vaccine-induced immunity was 0.34% [95%CI 0.24-0.43], 4.30% [95%CI 3.80-4.81], and 24.4% [95%CI 23.4-25.4], respectively. The prevalence of chronic infection was 2.74% [95% CI 1.72-3.76] in Asians, 0.64% [95% CI 0.35-0.92] in non-Hispanic blacks, and 0.15% [95% CI 0.06-0.24] in non-Asian, non-blacks. Only 26.2% of those with chronic infection were aware of their infection. The prevalence of the past exposure was 21.5% [95%CI 19.3-23.7] in Asians, 8.92% [95%CI 7.84-9.99] in non-Hispanic blacks, 2.05% [95%CI 1.49-2.63] in non-Hispanic whites and 4.47% [95%CI 3.25-5.70] in Hispanics. Prevalence of vaccine-induced immunity by each race was 34.1% [95%CI: 32.0-36.2] in Asians, 25.5% [95%CI: 24.0-27.0] in non-Hispanic blacks, 24.0% [95%CI: 22.6-25.4] in non-Hispanic whites and 22.2% [95%CI: 21.3-23.3] in Hispanics. There are considerable racial/ethnic disparities in HBV infection, exposure and immunity. More active and sophisticated healthcare policies on HBV management may be warranted.

Keywords: Hepatitis B virus; National Health Nutrition Examination Survey; awareness; epidemiology; racial disparity.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of interest: nothing to disclose

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Prevalence of HBV chronic infection, past exposure, and immunity
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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