Conocimientos y actitudes sobre hepatitis B en internos de medicina humana de las universidades acreditadas en la región Lambayeque, Perú, 2020

Objective. To determine the sociodemographic and clinical factors associated with the level of knowledge and attitudes about hepatitis B in human medicine interns of accredited universities in the Lambayeque region, 2020. Material and methods. Observational, quantitative, cross-sectional analytical study. The population was 123 human medicine interns in the year 2020. A validated questionnaire of 19 questions was virtually applied to measure the level of knowledge about hepatitis B, and a Likert-type scale with 14 items, for attitudes. Data analysis was performed with SPSS version 22.0 statistical software. Participation was voluntary. Results. Of the 93 respondents, 54.8% were female and the median age was 24 years. A total of 95.7% had received the HBV vaccine, but only 58.4% had received all three doses. The level of knowledge was poor in 93.5% and fair in 6.5%. The attitude towards hepatitis B was favorable in 73.1 % and unfavorable in 26.9 %. Bivariate analysis showed no association between sociodemographic and clinical variables with knowledge or attitude towards hepatitis B (p>0.05). Conclusions. Medical interns from accredited universities in Lambayeque have a poor level of knowledge and an unfavorable attitude towards HBV. There was no association between sociodemographic variables and level of knowledge or attitudes, nor between attitude and level of knowledge.