| dc.description.abstract | Introduction:
Hepatitis B virus has a potential mother to child transmission, and it‟s a major concern because of the associated long term morbidity and mortality of this infection. Hepatitis B virus is 50 to 100 times more infectious than HIV and it‟s fatal to both the mother and the fetus despite the health education given it still affects mothers
General objective:
The general objective is to determine the factors associated with sero-prevalence of hepatitis B surface antigen among pregnant women attending ANC at the Surgery clinic.
Methodology:
Across sectional study design was used to collect quantitative data on factors associated with sero-prevalence from 180 pregnant mothers attending ANC at the Surgery clinic in Kampala between April-September 2013. The mothers were enrolled consecutively after consenting to participate in the study and they filled in the questionnaire. Blood samples were collected from these mothers and tested for hepatitis sero-antigen –antibody to determine the sero-prevalence of hepatitis B infection. Data on associated factors were collected using researcher administered questionnaires Data was coded, entered, cleared, validated and analyzed using SPSS Version 16.0
Results:
The study revealed that 9 (5.1%) of the pregnant mothers were tested positive for hepatitis B infection. The factors associated with sero-prevalence of hepatitis B infection in this study were:
Social demographic factors: type of marriage (χ2=6.876 P= 0.009) and the rest of the variables did not have relationship with HBV. Individual factors: Scarification practice, (χ2=8.434 P=0.004), history of liver disease (χ2=10.342 P =0.001), Cultural behavioral factors: Ever shared 0.001), and history of safe sex (χ2 =8.372, P=0.004) and preventive strategies: history of sharing syringes (χ2 =10.269, P= 0.001) and history of contact with blood of another persons (χ2=4.886, P=0.027)
Conclusion and Recommendation:
The sero-prevalence of hepatitis B infection was found to be low among pregnant mother the attending ANC at the Surgery clinic. The study revealed that Hepatitis B infection is associated with the following factors: type of marriage, history of liver disease, scarification practice, safe sex practice, mothers who shares personal belongings, extramarital relationship and history of contact with blood of another person. Mothers should be routinely tested for HBV infection during ANC and the public should be health educated about prevention of hepatitis B. | en_US |
