شيوع آلودگي به ويروس هپاتيت B وعوامل خطر آن در كودكان و نوجوانان خياباني شهر اصفهان

Seroprevalence and Associated Risk Factors of Hepatitis B Virus among Street Children in Isfahan, Iran

Millions of children around the world live on the street. They are at higher risk of viral diseases (eg. hepatitis B virus) because of physical, sexual and drug abuse. The aim of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of hepatitis B virus (HBV) and its risk factors in Isfahan street children. In a cross-sectional study, we selected 399 street children. After getting information and performing the tests for HBs Ag, HBs Ab and HBc Ab, data were analyzed by SPSS software version 15 used t-test, %2, Mann- Whitney and logistic regression. We studied 271 (68%) boys and 128 (32%) girls. Their mean age was 12.74 ± 3.27 years. In our study, poverty was the main motivation for street children (68% of participants). 91.7%, 94.7% and 96.7% of the participants had no history of smoking, drinking alcoholic beverages or drug abuse, respectively. 34.4% of girls and 4.4% of boys (P = 0.001) were sexually abused and 68% of girls and 17.3% of boys (P = 0.001) were involved in physical fighting. HBs Ag, HBs Ab and HBc Ab seroprevalence were 3.3%, 14.4% and 2.1% respectively. No significant statistical difference was between HBV-seroprevalence and its probable risk factors. Educational programs for safer behaviors, training them to improve their quality of life, and hepatitis B vaccination in those who are non¬immune should be performed.