Abstract

Background: Medical students are high-risk people for blood-borne diseases such as hepatitis B and C virus. Data regarding knowledge of hepatitis B and C has been reported to be low among respondents in different studies. Although several studies were done on HBV and HCV infections among different risk groups, so far there is no published data about factors associated with knowledge, attitude and practice related to hepatitis B and C virus infection among clinical year medical students of Jimma University Medical Center, Jimma, Ethiopia.

Objective: The present study aimed to assess knowledge, attitude and practice of clinical year medical students to hepatitis B virus and hepatitis C virus infection in Jimma University Medical Center, Jimma, Ethiopia.

Methods: Intuitional based cross-sectional study was conducted at Jimma University medical center, Jimma, Ethiopia in January to March 2020.

Results: Two hundred sixteen clinical year medical students participated. Of the total participant, .558 127 (58.8%) male and 89 (41.2%) were female. Most 130 (60.2%) participants were in the ≤ 24 ± .558 years, age groups. 202 (93.5%), of the participant, were single and 14 (6.5%) were married. Of 113 (52.3%), 103 (47.7%) the participants were Year-I and Year-II respectively. Most participants had Good knowledge, positive attitude and Good Practices to hepatitis B virus and hepatitis C virus infection157 (72.7%),162 (75.0%) and 126 (58.3%) respectively.

Conclusion: Regarding the present study participants had good knowledge, positive attitude and Good practice to hepatitis B virus and hepatitis C virus infection. The overall knowledge, attitude, and Practices were not significantly associated with socio-demographic data of the participant of the study.

Keywords: Knowledge; Attitude; Practices; Clinical Year; Hepatitis

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