Abstract
BACKGROUND: Young population is at high risk of acquiring sexually transmitted infections including hepatitis B virus, and thus the key target group for intervention. University students are reported to have inadequate knowledge concerning HBV. This study aimed to generate information on students' knowledge and attitudes surrounding HBV preventive practices. METHODOLOGY: A cross-sectional study was conducted in three Tanzanian universities in Moshi town of the northern Tanzanian region of Kilimanjaro. A total of 283 students were interviewed regarding their knowledge, attitudes, and practices regarding Hepatitis B Virus infection. Bloom's cut-off of 80% was used throughout to determine whether respondents had appropriate Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices (KAP). Chi-squared test was used to measure independent associations between observed KAP levels with any demographic risk factors, with a P value of 0.05 as the cut-off for statistical significance. RESULTS: There was a fairly good knowledge about HBV among students among the three universities such that; 22.3%, 33.9% and 43.8% of the students had good, moderate and poor knowledge about HBV, respectively. While 46.3% of the students showed neutral attitude towards HBV, 29.3% and 24.4% had positive and negative attitudes, respectively. Only 6.0% of the students had good practices for HBV whereas 21.6% and 72.4 showed moderate and poor practices respectively. With regards to good knowledge, associated demographic factors included: Being single (P=.007); Having a master's degree (P=.039) and being a student at MWECAU (P=.001). Being single and being a student at MWECAU were also independently associated with positive attitude to HBV (P=.007) and (.001), respectively. No demographic factor was associated with HBV practices. CONCLUSIONS: The overall knowledge regarding HBV was fairly good among students from the three universities. Neutral attitude towards HBV demonstrated by the studied students may indicate stigma against HBV carriers. Notwithstanding the positive knowledge and the moderate attitude about HBV, there was an apparent poor practice towards HBV prevention especially vaccination and screening. Our findings, underscore the need to bridge the prominent gap between knowledge and practices among the high-risk youth in universities and schools by up scaling sensitization campaigns on preventive practices against HBV and other related viruses.