Awareness of knowledge about hepatitis C prevention and treatment in residents and medical staff in Beijing, 2021

  Objective  To understand the awareness of knowledge about hepatitis C in residents and medical staff and the performance of diagnosis, treatment and reporting of hepatitis C in medical institutions in Beijing, and provide the evidence for the health education about hepatitis C in different populations and improvement of the diagnosis and reporting of hepatitis C.

  Methods  In 2021, a cross-sectional survey was conducted in Dongcheng and Tongzhou districts of Beijing. Four communities were selected in each district according to the principle of proportional to population size. In each community, 100 residents aged 15−65 years were randomly selected for the survey. According to the reported hepatitis C cases number from 2018 to 2020 and the level of hospital, medical staff in hospitals ranking top 7 in reported case numbers were selected for the survey.

  Results  A total of 893 valid questionnaires were returned in community survey, the awareness rate of basic knowledge of hepatitis C in residents was only 37.40%. Marital status (χ²=11.03, P＜0.05) and education level (χ²=39.98, P＜0.05) were the influencing factors of the awareness of basic knowledge about hepatitis C. A total of 498 valid questionnaires were returned from the medical staff, the awareness rate of basic knowledge about hepatitis C was 95.98%, but the awareness rate of professional knowledge about hepatitis C was only 20.08%. The awareness rate of “Clinical classification of hepatitis C” and “Clinical diagnostic criteria of hepatitis C” was less than 10.00%. Education level (OR=3.35, 95%CI: 1.82−6.17), hospital department (OR=0.40, 95%CI: 0.20−0.78) and professional hepatitis C training history in the past year (OR=10.33, 95%CI: 1.34−79.79) were the influencing factors for the awareness of professional knowledge about hepatitis C in medical staff.

  Conclusion  In Beijing, the residents’ awareness rate of basic knowledge about hepatitis C was low, especially the clinical manifestations of hepatitis C, and medical staff had a high awareness rate of basic knowledge about hepatitis C, but the awareness rate of professional knowledge about hepatitis C was low, especially the clinical diagnosis and classification of hepatitis C. In the future, it is necessary to conduct targeted health education in different populations and strengthen the training of hepatitis C diagnosis and treatment in medical staff.