Hepatitis BMarkers in Isfahan, Central Iran: APopulation-Based Study

Background and aims: hepatitis b is the most frequent cause of chronic hepatitis and cirrhosis in iran. to establishbetter preventive strategies, updating data on prevalence rates are needed. this study was conducted to determine theseroprevalence of hepatitis b virus (hbv) in isfahan province, central iran, in 2006.methods: i n a cross-sectional study in 2006, 816 subjects over 6 years old were selected through a systematic multistagecluster sampling from 32 urban and 9 rural areas of isfahan province. demographic data, hbv risk factors andblood samples were collected and hepatitis b surface antigen (hbsag), hepatitis b surface antibody (hbsab) andhepatitis b core antibody (hbcab) were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (elisa) method. chi-squaretest and odds ratio (95% cis) and multistage logistic regression analysis were used for statistical analysis. a p<0.05was considered statistically significant.results: the subjects of this study included 428 females (52.5%) and 388 males (47.5%). of the 816 participants, 10(1.3%) were positive fo r hbsag, 98 (12.1%) for isolat ed hbsab, 22 (2.9%) for isolated hbcab and 11 (1.3%) for bothhbsab and hbcab. the hbsag seropositive rate ranged from 0 in 6-9-year-old to 1.9% in 40-49-year-old age groups.hbsab and hbcab were more frequently observed in 6-9-year-old and ~5 0 -yea r-o l d age groups, respectively. no subjectvaccinated for hbv was found positive for hbsag or hbcab (age group 6-9 yea rs old). according to the status ofeducation, the highest hbcab positivity rate was in non-educated group (p<0.001). there were no independent riskfactors for any of hbv markers.conclusions: isfahan province seems to have a low prevalence of hbv infection. however, as low hbcab and hbsabprevalence rates were seen in non-vaccinated at-risk age groups, improving the coverage of vaccination for hbv seemsnecessary.