TY - JOUR AU - Hussein, Nawfal R AU - Musa, Dildar H AU - Hawezy, Dawan Jamal AU - Ahmed, Ferhad MR AU - Khalid, Fatma Kamal AU - Naqid, Ibrahim A AU - Assafi, Mahde Saleh PY - 2021/10/26 Y2 - 2024/03/29 TI - A study on the prevalence and the risk factors of hepatitis B virus infection in Kurdistan Region, Iraq: A multicenter study: Prevalence and the risk factors of HBV JF - Journal of Contemporary Medical Sciences JA - J. Contemp. Med. Sci. VL - 7 IS - 5 SE - Articles DO - 10.22317/jcms.v7i5.1037 UR - https://jocms.org/index.php/jcms/article/view/1037 SP - AB - <p><strong>Objectives: </strong>The aims of this study were to determine the prevalence of HBV infection and investigate the HBV-related risk factors in the Kurdistan region of Iraq.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>Sera samples were collected from 3423 patients visiting three centers and tested for HBV positivity by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. A questionnaire was prepared and used by the volunteers who collected data, including age, marital status, and different HBV-related risk factors, through face-to-face interviews.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>The mean age of the recruited participants was 28.94 ± 11.17 years. In addition, 873/3423 (25.47%) were males, and 3024/3423 (88.34%) were married. Furthermore, HBV infection had a prevalence of 1.37% (47/3243). Multivariate analysis was conducted to identify the predictive factors of HBV infection, which revealed that a history of tattoos and age were predictive factors (p&lt;0.05). We then stratified our data according to sex. No association was found between the various factors and HBV positivity in males. On the other hand, in females, a significant association was found between the history of tattoos or age and HBV positivity (p&lt;0.05).</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>In conclusion, the prevalence of HBV infection was low. Our study showed that a history of tattooing and older age were predictive of HBV infection. Our results could be used as a basis for local elimination programs.</p> ER -