Abstract
BackgroundEarly detection, identification, and treatment of chronic hepatitis B through screening is vital for those at increased risk, e.g. born in hepatitis B endemic countries. In the Netherlands, Moroccan immigrants show low participation rates in health-related screening programmes. Since social networks influence health behaviour, we investigated whether similar screening intentions for chronic hepatitis B cluster within social networks of Moroccan immigrants.MethodsWe used respondent-driven sampling (RDS) where each participant (“recruiter”) was asked to complete a questionnaire and to recruit three Moroccans (“recruitees”) from their social network. Logistic regression analyses were used to analyse whether the recruiters’ intention to request a screening test was similar to the intention of their recruitees.ResultsWe sampled 354 recruiter-recruitee pairs: for 154 pairs both participants had a positive screening intention, for 68 pairs both had a negative screening intention, and the remaining 132 pairs had a discordant intention to request a screening test. A tie between a recruiter and recruitee was associated with having the same screening intention, after correction for sociodemographic variables (OR 1.70 [1.15–2.51]).ConclusionsThe findings of our pilot study show clustering of screening intention among individuals in the same network. This provides opportunities for social network interventions to encourage participation in hepatitis B screening initiatives.
Highlights
Detection, identification, and treatment of chronic hepatitis B through screening is vital for those at increased risk, e.g. born in hepatitis B endemic countries
Following the guidelines of Statistics Netherlands, we define firstgeneration Moroccan immigrants as individuals born in Morocco and having at least one parent born in Morocco, and second-generation Moroccan immigrants as individuals born in the Netherlands and having at least one parent born in Morocco [14]
Questionnaire We developed and used a questionnaire in Dutch, in which questions were based on a compilation of the Health Belief Model (HBM), the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB), and Betancourt’s Model of Culture and Behaviour [38] following earlier studies that investigated Hepatitis B virus (HBV) screening intention among the Turkish-Dutch population [39]
Summary
Identification, and treatment of chronic hepatitis B through screening is vital for those at increased risk, e.g. born in hepatitis B endemic countries. The Netherlands is a low-endemic country for chronic HBV (prevalence: 0.1%) [2], several risk groups have a significantly higher prevalence of HBV carriage, the largest of which being immigrants from intermediate or high endemic countries [3, 4] Of these immigrants, an estimated 5.4% is chronically infected [2, 5]. In November 2016, the Dutch Health Council recommended HBsAgscreening for first-generation immigrants originating from intermediate (2–7%) or high (≥ 8%) HBV endemic countries [8] This screening for HBsAg aims to detect unnoticed asymptomatic chronically infected individuals for either immediate treatment or monitoring, and to prevent further transmission [9]. Following the guidelines of Statistics Netherlands, we define firstgeneration Moroccan immigrants as individuals born in Morocco and having at least one parent born in Morocco, and second-generation Moroccan immigrants as individuals born in the Netherlands and having at least one parent born in Morocco [14]
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