Seroepidemiology of hepatitis B in healthy population in Tianjin, 2010

Objective To understand the current status of hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection among the healthy population in Tianjin. Methods The survey of HBV infection status and hepatitis B vaccination was conducted among the healthy population selected in 16 counties (district) in Tianjin with stratified cluster random sampling. Results The results showed that the positive rates of HBsAg, anti-HBs and anti-HBc were 2.63%, 47.63% and 10.15% respectively. The positive rate of HBsAg was significantly higher in males (3.52%) than in females (1.73%) and increased with age (2=30.39, P0.05); The positive rate of HBsAg varied with areas, which was highest in coastal area (4.17%) and lowest in urban area (1.85%), the difference was statistical significant (2=9.59, P0.05). The positive rate of HBsAg was highest in farmers (4.44%) and lowest in children aged 10 years (0.38%). The positive rates of anti-HBs were similar between males and females, which declined with age. Conclusion The new sampling method was suitable for the serological surveillance of hepatitis B in the context of the difficulty existing in household survey for collecting blood sample and the result of the study was representative.