Background: Medical students are at high risk of hepatitis B during their training, and are expected to be future doctors to acquire proper knowledge and attitude about the virus.
The aim of the work: The present study aimed at assessing knowledge, attitude, and practice regarding hepatitis B virus among Saudi medical students.
Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study conducted among147clinical phase medical students during the period from may 2017 to April 2017. A self-administered questionnaire (five components and 46 choice questions with yes/no or yes/no/don't know) was used to assess knowledge (16 queries), attitude (18 items), symptoms and signs (6 questions), prevention (4 questions), and treatment (two issues) . The Statistical Package for Social Sciences (IBM, SPSS, version 20, New York) was used for data analysis. The data were presented as percentages and mean± SD unless otherwise specified. A P-value of <0.05 was considered significant.
Results: Out of 147 medical students (51% males), their age was 22.90±1.2 years, the student's overall knowledge was 70.54±26.51%, the knowledge regarding symptoms and complications was 83.9±9.11%, while the prevention, treatment, and attitude scores were 67.17±20.96%, 51.7±32.66%, and 53.52±26.11% respectively.
Conclusion: The students in Tabuk had a negative attitude towards hepatitis B virus in spite of the fair knowledge, their knowledge regarding the virus prevention and treatment were suboptimal.