Barbers’ awareness about Hepatitis B in Sindh Pakistan.

Abstract

Introduction: Hepatitis B is the serious public health problem and a leading cause of chronic liver disease worldwide. HBV alone is responsible for 0.5-1 million annual deaths globally due to cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma.
Methodology: This Cross-Sectional study was carried out in 8 different union council of Khairpur Taluka/ tehsils in district KhairpurMirs district from December 2014 to April 2015. Selection of barbers was done through two staged cluster sampling. In first stage 8 different Union Councils (UCs) of Khairpur Taluka of KhairpurMirs district were randomly selected. In Second stage 25 Barbers from each selected UC practicing was included in the study after random selection.
Objectives: Main purpose of the study was to assess the Knowledge, Attitude and Practice regarding Hepatitis B among barbers working in different union councils of Khairpur tehsil/ taluka of district KhairpurMirs.
Results: Majority (19%) of our study participants belong to UC Shah Latif while large proportion (30%) of participants belongs to age group 26-30 years. When questions related to knowledge of Hepatitis B were asked from our participant, majority (84%) of them knew that hepatitis B is a disease, while only 9% of them said that using of already used razors or blades by barbers is the main mode of spread of hepatitis B and 27% of them said that using contaminated water the reason for spread of hepatitis B. Majority (46.6%) of participants replied that there is no any vaccine available for hepatitis B prevention. Surprisingly almost 65% of them don’t have any information about Government free hepatitis vaccination program. Half of the participants believe that changing of blades every time with every new client can also prevent spread of HBV. 76% of participants use to clean their instruments with disinfectants between the clients and 46% of them use new blades on every new client. Majority of the participants were not vaccinated for Hepatitis B.
Conclusion: Findings of our study demonstrate that despite the many mass media health educational campaigns related to the awareness of Hepatitis B in Sindh, barbers in KhairpurMirs district had no detailed understanding of diseases.
Keywords: knowledge, attitude, practice, Hepatitis B, Barber