Seroprevalence of Hepatitis B Virus Infection is Associated with Male Circumcision among Senior High School Students in the Krachi Nchumuru District in the Oti Region of Ghana: A cross-sectional study

Patrick K. Nyambah, Richard Adjei, Bismark Sarfo
2023 · doi:10.21203/rs.3.rs-2845421/v1
preprint OA: closed CC-BY-4.0
📄 Open PDF View at publisher

Abstract

Background: There is paucity of hepatitis B virus (HBV) data among student populations although Ghana is HBV endemic. Screening and identification of factors associated with HBV transmission in schools will support the intervention in the elimination of the virus by 2030. This study assessed the seroprevalence and factors associated with HBV among students in two Senior High Schools in the Krachi Nchumuru District in Ghana. Methods: : Through descriptive cross-sectional design and simple random sampling technique, 300 first-year students were enrolled from selected Senior High Schools. Structured questionnaires were used to collect data on demographic and exposure factors while rapid test kit was used to detect HBV infections. Chi-square/Fisher exact test and multivariable logistic regression were performed to determine the association between the variables at a 95% confidence interval and 0.05 significant level. Results: : Seroprevalence of HBV was 14% (42/300) among the students. The prevalence was significantly (p=0.001) higher in males 19.4% (34/175) than females 6.4% (8/125). 77.7% (233/300) were aware of HBV infection. Males who were circumcised were 4 times more likely to be infected with HBV (AOR=4.09, 95%CI=1.82-9.19) (p=0.001) compared with those uncircumcised. Conclusion: HBV screening and education on hygienic genital circumcision practices must be prioritized in endemic countries.

My notes (saved in your browser only)

Citation neighborhood (no data yet)

We don't have any in-corpus citations linked to this paper yet. The paper's references may be in our DB but unresolved to ``paper_id`` (resolution happens at ingest when the cited DOI matches a row we already have). Run the cross-source citation reconcile pass to retry.

References (22)

Source provenance

crossref
last seen: 2026-06-20T06:35:11.404913+00:00
europepmc
last seen: 2026-05-19T01:45:01.086888+00:00
unpaywall
last seen: 2026-05-22T02:00:06.705733+00:00
License: CC-BY-4.0