title: Hepatitis B prevention: practices and attitudes of physicians and dentists.
abstract: A survey of community-based physicians and dentists from the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area was conducted to assess the practices and attitudes of these health professionals relative to hepatitis B prevention. Mail questionnaires were sent to 200 physicians and 200 dentists. An overall response rate of 50 percent was obtained with one follow-up to all nonrespondents. The preventive practices adopted by the physicians were found to differ significantly from those of the dentists, including risk factors, history taking, using gloves and/or masks, and routinely screening for serologic markers. The physicians were significantly more likely than the dentists to be unwilling to take a safe, effective, hepatitis vaccine (p less than .01). Concerns about long-term safety and side effects were the most frequently mentioned reasons for this attitude. Though most survey respondents believed that if they were to become a hepatitis B chronic carrier, it would be better to know about it. Twenty six percent of the physicians and 14 percent of the dentists believed that not knowing about being a chronic carrier would be protective in a legal action against them. A majority of all of the health professionals surveyed felt that knowing their carrier status could jeopardize their career.
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Care Sciences, George Washington University School of Medicine, Washington, D.C.
authors.forename: K E
authors.initials: KE
authors.lastname: Sherman
authors.forename: S N
authors.initials: SN
authors.lastname: Sherman
authors.forename: W P
authors.initials: WP
authors.lastname: Ku
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Stewart
authors.forename: G J
authors.initials: GJ
authors.lastname: Povar
mesh_terms: D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D003815:Dentists; D006509:Hepatitis B / Q000517:prevention & control*; D006801:Humans; D010820:Physicians; D014761:Viral Hepatitis Vaccines / Q000627:therapeutic use
chemical_list: D014761:Viral Hepatitis Vaccines