Risk Exposure to Hepatitis B infection among Senior Secondary School Students in a Metropolitan City of North-central Nigeria

Background: Hepatitis B is the most prevalent chronic infectious liver disease worldwide with serious sequelae. Reduction of hepatitis B infection is a national public health priority. Despite international efforts to prevent the infection through global vaccination programs, new cases are still being reported throughout the world.Objectives: This study aims to determine the risk exposure factors for hepatitis B infection among senior secondary school students in Ilorin East Local Government Area of Kwara state, Nigeria.Methods: Multistage sampling technique was used to recruit 424 adolescents into the study. Pretested interviewer administered semi-structured questionnaires were used for the study. Data were analyzed using STATA version 10.1 software. A p-value of less than 0.05 was considered as statistically significant.Results: The major risk exposure factors in the study population were contact with blood or body fluids (33.7%), family history of previous infection of HBV (30.4%) of the respondents; one sexual partner (16.5%), multiple sexual partners (15.3%) and ear or body piercing (14.9%). Majority (78.1%) of the respondents had low risk exposure, while 8.0% had medium risk exposure, only 59 (13.9%) of the respondents had high risk exposure for Hepatitis B virus infection. Significant relationships were found between risk exposure score and school type, gender, family history of the disease mothers’ and fathers’ educational background of the respondents (p<0.05).Conclusion: Risk exposure was low among the respondents. There is a need for a community wide campaign on health risk awareness and perception of HBV. [Ethiop. J. Health Dev. 2016;30(2):96-102]Keywords: Hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg), Hepatitis B virus (HBV), Risk Exposur