ABSTRACT

The HBV seroprevalance in our pregnant population was found to be similar to that detected in the studies of general population of Turkey. The type of health insurance (Green Card - Yeşil Kart), personal history of jaundice and family history of jaundice were found to be the risk factors associated with seropositivity for HBV infection in pregnant women.

We detected HbsAg seropositivity in nine (3.9%) and Anti-HBsAg seropositivity in 37 patients (20.9%). HBV seroprevalance was calculated as 23.7%. The risk of being seropositive for HBV was related to health insurance type (Green Card - Yeşil Kart) (OR = 4.476, 95% CI = 1.942-10.320, p = 0.001), personal history of jaundice (OR = 3.607, 95% CI = 1.258-10.339, p = 0.017), family history of jaundice (OR = 1.795, 95% CI = 0.806-4.000, p = 0.152).

Age, place of birth, health insurance, area, education, occupation, level of income, obstetric history, history of any past operations, history of dental operation, blood and/or blood products transfusion history, personal history of jaundice, family history, immunization for hepatitis B were recorded. HBV seroprevalance was investigated by serologic tests for Hepatitis B surface antigen (HbsAg) and Hepatitis B surface antigen antibody (Anti-HbsAg) examined by ELISA. Hepatitis B virus seroprevalance was defined as the ratio of women either positive for HbsAg or positive for Anti-HBsAg over the whole study population. Chi-square test, Fisher’s Exact test and logistic regression test analysis were performed.

No intervention.

A group of 236 pregnant women between 17-44 years of age, admitted to pregnancy outpatient clinic between May 2007 – November 2007 were enrolled.

A tertiary referral center.

A cross sectional study.

To investigate Hepatitis B virus (HBV) seroprevalance in pregnant women and establish the relation between sociodemographic characteristics, risk factors and HBV seroprevalance.