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. 2025 Apr 25;25(1):1551.
doi: 10.1186/s12889-025-22437-5.

Effectiveness of catch-up vaccination from 2009 to 2011 on incidence of hepatitis B in Guangzhou, China: a time series analysis

Bo-Wen Ming #  1 , Wen-Hui Liu #  1   2 , Li Li #  1 , Jin-Lun Zhang  1 , Jing Liu  1 , Jia-Jun Ma  1 , Hao-Neng Huang  1 , Zhou-Bin Zhang  3 , Chun-Quan Ou  4
Affiliations

Effectiveness of catch-up vaccination from 2009 to 2011 on incidence of hepatitis B in Guangzhou, China: a time series analysis

Bo-Wen Ming et al. BMC Public Health. .

Abstract

Background: The high prevalence of hepatitis B weighs heavily on public health in China. In 2009, a catch-up vaccination program for children aged 8-15y was implemented to curb hepatitis B, while the effectiveness of this intervention has not been investigated. We aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of catch-up vaccination on the incidence of hepatitis B in Guangzhou, China.

Methods: We obtained individual data of all hepatitis B cases from 2005 to 2019 in Guangzhou from Guangzhou Center for Diseases Control and Prevention. Based on daily reported number of cases, we constructed generalized linear models to estimate the effectiveness of the intervention on the incidence of hepatitis B in each age group from 11 to 25 years. We further estimated the age-standardized effectiveness. Finally, we examined the effectiveness in different subgroups by sex and clinical types of hepatitis B.

Results: A total of 58,204 hepatitis B cases among individuals aged 11-25y were reported in Guangzhou from 2005 to 2019, with an average annual age-standardized incidence of 117.30 cases per 100,000 individuals. The catch-up vaccination contributed to an age-standardized 20.02% (95% confidence interval: 15.97%, 23.87%) decrease in the hepatitis B incidence among individuals aged 11-25y and prevented an annual age-standardized average of 17.40 (95% empirical confidence interval [eCI]: 9.24, 23.78) cases per 100,000 individuals from hepatitis B during the study period. The intervention could better protect males (excess incidence rate [EIR]: -21.82 [95% eCI: -30.51, -10.15] cases per 100,000 individuals), and prevent chronic cases (EIR: -24.27 [95% eCI: -30.62, -16.09] cases per 100,000 individuals).

Conclusions: The massive catch-up vaccination against hepatitis B among children plays an important role in alleviating the burden of hepatitis B.

Keywords: Catch-up vaccination; China; Hepatitis B; Incidence; National program on immunization.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declarations. Ethics approval and consent to participate: This study was approved by the Research Ethics Committee of Southern Medical University (NFYKDX-ER2022012). The need for the informed consent was waived by the Research Ethics Committee, since the de-identified summarized data were derived from Guangzhou Center for Disease Control and Prevention for analyses in this study. Consent for publication: Not applicable. Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Yearly crude incidence of hepatitis B and corresponding confidence intervals in Guangzhou from 2005 to 2019
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Excess risks, cases, and incidence rates of hepatitis B attributable to catch-up vaccination. The units of excess risks and excess incidence rates were % and cases per 100,000 individuals, respectively. Abbreviation: CI, confidence interval; eCI, empirical confidence interval
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