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Ethnic Differences in Prevalence and Barriers of HBV Screening and Vaccination Among Asian Americans

Journal of Community Health volume 37, pages 1071–1080 (2012)Cite this article

Abstract

Our study identifies the prevalence of HBV virus (HBV) screening and vaccination among Asian Americans, and ethnic differences for factors associated with screening and vaccination behaviors. In 2009–2010 we recruited 877 Korean, Chinese, and Vietnamese Americans 18 years of age and above through several community organizations, churches and local ethnic businesses in Maryland for a health education intervention and a self-administered survey. Prevalence of HBV screening, screening result and vaccinations were compared by each ethnic group. We used logistic regression analysis to understand how sociodemographics, familial factors, patient-, provider-, and resource-related barriers are associated with screening and vaccination behaviors, using the total sample and separate analysis for each ethnic group. Forty-seven percent of participants reported that they had received HBV screening and 38% had received vaccinations. Among the three groups, the Chinese participants had the highest screening prevalence, but lowest self-reported infection rate; Vietnamese has the lowest screening and vaccination prevalence. In multivariate analysis, having better knowledge of HBV, and family and physician recommendations was significantly associated with screening and vaccination behaviors. Immigrants who had lived in the US for more than a quarter of their lifetime were less likely to report ever having been screened (OR = 0.39, 95% CI: 0.28–0.55) or vaccinated (OR = 0.62, 95% CI: 0.44–0.88). In ethnic-specific analysis, having a regular physician (OR = 4.46, 95% CI: 1.62–12.25) and doctor’s recommendation (OR = 2.11, 95% CI: 1.05–4.22) are significantly associated with Korean’s vaccination behaviors. Health insurance was associated with vaccination behaviors only among Vietnamese (OR = 2.66, 95% CI: 1.21–5.83), but not among others.

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Acknowledgments

We thank all participants of this study. We appreciate the dedicated work in the field from the research team: Hyeyeon Yoon, Yang Wu, Hien Tran, Lu Chen, Byung Joon Park, Anh H. Huynh, Jun Sang Park, Kim-Vy Nguyen-Ngoc, and Woochul Park. Funding for this study was provided by National Cancer Institute Grant R25CA129042. NCI had no further role in study design, data collection, analysis, or interpretation, in the writing of the report, or in the decision to submit the paper for publication.

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Affiliations

  1. Institute of Sociology, Academia Sinica, 128 Sec. 2 Academia Rd., Nankang, Taipei, 11529, Taiwan

    Carol Strong

  2. Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, University of Maryland School of Public Health, 2234C SPH Bldg, College Park, MD, 20742, USA

    Sunmin Lee

  3. Department of Health, Behavior and Society, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, 624N. Broadway, Room # 704, Baltimore, MD, 21205, USA

    Miho Tanaka & Hee-Soon Juon

Authors
  1. Carol Strong
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  2. Sunmin Lee
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  3. Miho Tanaka
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  4. Hee-Soon Juon
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Correspondence to Hee-Soon Juon.

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Strong, C., Lee, S., Tanaka, M. et al. Ethnic Differences in Prevalence and Barriers of HBV Screening and Vaccination Among Asian Americans. J Community Health 37, 1071–1080 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10900-012-9541-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10900-012-9541-4

Keywords

  • HBV infection
  • Asian Americans
  • HBV prevalence
  • Health care access barriers