{"doi":"10.3389/fpubh.2022.859350","title":"Seroprevalence of Hepatitis B Among Healthcare Workers in Asia and Africa and Its Association With Their Knowledge and Awareness: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis","abstract":"Introduction: The hepatitis B virus (HBV) is a blood-borne virus that can be transmitted by percutaneous and mucocutaneous contact with infected bodily fluid. Healthcare workers (HCWs) are more exposed to HBV infection. They must have a thorough understanding of HBV infection since they can contract and spread the virus. In this study, we systematically reviewed all published evidence on the seroprevalence of Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection among HCWs. and synthesize evidence on the association between knowledge and awareness with HBV infection. Methods: We searched PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane Library and Scopus for studies reporting on HBV seroprevalence from January 1997 to September 2021 among healthcare workers. We used random-effects meta-analyses to estimate the pool prevalence of HBV infection. Results: We identified 25 studies that met our inclusion criteria, with data on 10,043 adults from 11 countries and two regions: Africa and Asia. The overall seroprevalence of HBV was 5.0% (95% confidence interval [CI] 3.6%), with Africa reporting higher estimates (5.0%, 95% CI 3.7%) than Asia population (4.0%, 95% CI 1.9%). The highest pooled prevalence estimate in African countries came from studies published in the Cameroon region (8.0%, 95% CI 5-10%) while the lowest came from Ethiopia (4.0%, 95% CI 2.6%). The overall seroprevalence estimates in the African population were significantly higher than those in the Asian group. Studies in Africa found that the average knowledge and seroprevalence were 1.4% and 11.0%, respectively where, eight studies (53.3%) reported good knowledge and seven studies (46.7%) reported average knowledge. In Asia, two studies (40.0%) reported good knowledge, one study (20.0%) reporting average knowledge, and two studies (40.0%) reporting poor knowledge. African studies demonstrated good knowledge despite the fact that their HBV infection rate was higher than 6.7%. Conclusion: Africa and Asia have the highest seroprevalence of HBV infection. Improving the comparability of epidemiological and clinical studies constitutes an important step forward. More high-quality data is needed to improve the precision of burden estimates. Systematic Review Registration: PROSPERO CRD42021279905.","journal":"Frontiers in Public Health","year":2022,"id":249840,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":27,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9633,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2022-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":522015,"name":"Nor Asiah Muhamad","orcid":"0000-0002-7772-2103","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":587082,"name":"Nor Soleha Mohd Dali","orcid":"0000-0002-1307-0097","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":890703,"name":"Mohd Hatta Abdul Mutalip","orcid":"0000-0002-2750-5792","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":890704,"name":"Fatin Norhasny Leman","orcid":"0000-0001-7329-8571","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":38468,"name":"Tahir Aris","orcid":"0000-0002-0205-3080","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":587084,"name":"Nai Ming Lai","orcid":"0000-0002-4204-3098","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":670407,"name":"Muhammad Radzi Abu Hassan","orcid":"0000-0002-7971-1643","position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":890702,"name":"Nur Hasnah Maamor","orcid":"0000-0001-6440-1725","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":45,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T00:24:23.754337Z","pmid":"35570890","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}