Background: Prevalence for hepatitis B (HBV) and C (HCV) viruses infection are particularly high among underprivileged persons (UPP) related to the use of injecting drug, residence in high endemic countries or a low rate of condom use in case of multiple sexual partners. It is important to know whether these persons are well aware of prevention measures for these infections. The aim of our study was to evaluate the knowledge of preventive measures among UPP and, at the same time, among health- and social-care workers (H/S-CWs).
Methods: The study was conducted in 68 salvation settings. The H/S-CWs filled out once 9-item self-administered questionnaires on HBV and HCV, concerning the illnesses, and their transmission, prevention, and screening. A similar questionnaire was proposed by H/S-CWs, to UPP after each interview. All answers were grouped into 4 categories: true (one right item or more), false, unknown, no answer.
Results: One thousand nine hundred twenty one questionnaires were collected: 312 were from H/S-CWs and 1609 from UPP. The answer rate was 100% for H/S-CWs and 92.7% among the UPP population. Knowledge about HBV and HCV was better for H-CWs compared to S-CWs. For HBV, routes of transmission was the best known field (85.2% of right answers) and use of blood sample screening was the least known field (54.2%). Vaccination was advanced by 50.6% of H/S-CWs. For HCV, routes of transmission were also the best known field (65.9%) while preventive measures were frequently unknown (22.0%). Among the UPP, blood sample screening was the best known field for HBV (34.5% of right answers) as for HCV (27.5%). Knowledge about the routes of transmission and the populations at risk was very low for HBV (28.2% and 15.5%) and for HCV (9.4% and 5.1%). The analyses of each response showed that the rates of wrong answers were much higher for H/S-CWs compared to UPP. On the other hand the rates of "unknown" answer were higher in the UPP. This finding suggests that H/S-CWs had a false perception of knowing relevant information on HBV and HCV. The high proportion of no answer among UPP confirmed their ignorance of those diseases.
Conclusion: The UPP needs appropriate information on HBV and HCV. This information could be delivered by H/S-CWs. However, preliminary training, particularly for S-CWs, might improve their insufficient knowledge at the present time.