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. 2020 Mar 17;20(1):344.
doi: 10.1186/s12889-020-8438-x.

Clustering of chronic hepatitis B screening intentions in social networks of Moroccan immigrants in the Netherlands

Nora Hamdiui  1   2   3 , Vincent Buskens  4 , Jim E van Steenbergen  5   6 , Mirjam E E Kretzschmar  7   8 , Luis E C Rocha  9 , Anna E Thorson  10 , Aura Timen  5   11 , Albert Wong  12 , Maria van den Muijsenbergh  13   14 , Mart L Stein  5
Affiliations

Clustering of chronic hepatitis B screening intentions in social networks of Moroccan immigrants in the Netherlands

Nora Hamdiui et al. BMC Public Health. .

Abstract

Background: Early detection, identification, and treatment of chronic hepatitis B through screening is vital for those at increased risk, e.g. born in hepatitis B endemic countries. In the Netherlands, Moroccan immigrants show low participation rates in health-related screening programmes. Since social networks influence health behaviour, we investigated whether similar screening intentions for chronic hepatitis B cluster within social networks of Moroccan immigrants.

Methods: We used respondent-driven sampling (RDS) where each participant ("recruiter") was asked to complete a questionnaire and to recruit three Moroccans ("recruitees") from their social network. Logistic regression analyses were used to analyse whether the recruiters' intention to request a screening test was similar to the intention of their recruitees.

Results: We sampled 354 recruiter-recruitee pairs: for 154 pairs both participants had a positive screening intention, for 68 pairs both had a negative screening intention, and the remaining 132 pairs had a discordant intention to request a screening test. A tie between a recruiter and recruitee was associated with having the same screening intention, after correction for sociodemographic variables (OR 1.70 [1.15-2.51]).

Conclusions: The findings of our pilot study show clustering of screening intention among individuals in the same network. This provides opportunities for social network interventions to encourage participation in hepatitis B screening initiatives.

Keywords: Hepatitis B; Intention; Moroccan immigrants; Netherlands; Respondent-driven sampling; Screening; Social networks.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
(a). Recruitment tree with only RDS ties, (b). Recruitment tree with only venue ties, (c). Recruitment tree with both RDS ties and venue ties
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Data structure of clusters and pairs. By using robust standard errors adapted for multi-way clustering, pairs with at least one participant in the same cluster (see pair A and pair B for example) are considered dependent observations. Pairs without participants in the same clusters (see pair A and pair E for example) are considered independent observations
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Screening intention among Moroccan immigrants (‘Intention request’). Those recruited offline are presented as nodes with a transparent border, those recruited online are presented as nodes with a black border, and seeds are nodes with a black dot in the centre
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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