Journal of Advances in Medicine and Medical Research

Background: Hepatitis B remains an important occupational health concern among healthcare personnel and trainees. Adequate knowledge of its transmission, clinical manifestations, complications and prevention is essential for occupational safety. However, awareness of hepatitis B vaccination may not reflect knowledge across other domains. Assessing these distinct knowledge domains among healthcare personnel in public primary care centres in Brazzaville may help identify areas requiring further educational assessment.

Aims: To describe six questionnaire-defined hepatitis B knowledge domains among healthcare personnel and trainees and to identify priorities for further educational assessment.

Study Design: Cross-sectional survey.

Place and Duration of Study: Seven public primary care centres in Talangaï and Djiri, Brazzaville, Republic of the Congo, July–November 2023.

Methodology: Questionnaire responses from 303 adults were analysed, representing 61.6% of 492 enumerated personnel and trainees. Six binary indicators were reconstructed from the source data. Domain-specific proportions, a descriptive domain count and within-person co-occurrence of vaccine awareness and transmission responses were examined. Exploratory regression analyses assessed associations and sensitivity to age specification and centre dependence.

Results: The proportions meeting the recorded criteria were 37.6% for reported knowledge of the definition, 63.4% for identification of the viral cause, 22.1% for at least three transmission routes, 11.6% for at least three clinical manifestations, 43.6% for reported knowledge of complications and 59.7% for awareness of an effective vaccine. Among 181 vaccine-aware respondents, 119 (65.7%) did not identify at least three transmission routes. The mean domain count was 2.38 of 6; 116 participants (38.3%) met at least four criteria. Higher education was associated with this exploratory outcome (adjusted odds ratio 3.37), but its 95% confidence interval widened from 1.87–6.07 to 0.89–12.69 when centre dependence was explored.

Conclusion: Vaccine awareness frequently coexisted with limited identification of transmission routes. The findings support focused educational assessment in the participating centres. Mixed question formats, non-probability recruitment and uncertain cluster-level precision preclude interpreting these results as validated competence estimates or causal determinants.