Awareness about Hepatitis B and/or C Viruses among Residents of Adama and Assela Cities. Oromia Regional State, Oromia, Ethiopia

Background: The word Hepatitis means an inflammation of the liver, and caused by one of many things, including a viral infection, bacterial infection, liver injury caused by a toxin (poison) or even an attack to the liver by the body’s own immune system.

Objective: The study has been undertaken with the aim to assess the level of awareness of hepatitis B and/or C viruses and factors that may affect the awareness level among residents of Adama and Assela cities.

Methods: Two stages stratified random sampling technique with stratifications formed by sub city applied to this study. Classical Logistic Regression Model has been employed to predict the probability of awareness (dependent variable), on the base of a set of predictor variables.

Results: Educational level, age, monthly income, total family size, reading habit and use of media had shown statistically significant association with response variable (awareness level) for both Adama and Assela cities. Only about 45.8% and 44.9% of the respondents at Adama and Assela cities respectively are aware of the infectious disease while the rest are not aware. Although 33.5% and 33.3% of the respondents on Adama and Assela cities respectively were aware of the availability of vaccine for Hepatitis B, only 6.6% and 6.8% of the respondents are vaccinated for Hepatitis B.

Conclusions: Variables significantly influencing awareness of residents at Adama and Assela cities towards Hepatitis B and/or C were educational level, monthly income, reading habit, uses of media.