Major articleLow level of immunity against hepatitis A among Korean adolescents: Vaccination rate and related factors
Section snippets
Study design and population
This study was conducted between March and April 2011 in Guro-gu, which is located in southwestern Seoul, Korea. Guro-gu is an urban area with 12 general, private, and specialty high schools and approximately 12,000 students. Among these students, 3,800 students in their first year of high school were born in approximately 1997 when the first HAV vaccination was given. The Guro-gu Public Health Center visited all 12 schools and provided brief explanations regarding HAV antibody testing and
Baseline characteristics
The mean age of parents was 44.34 ± 4.22 years and that of students was 15.41 ± 0.91 years. Students aged 15 years accounted for the highest proportion of students tested (56.8%), followed by those aged 16 years with 39.4%. Among the 2,879 students, 48.6% were male, and 51.4% were female. Survey of parental educational background showed that 61.9% had received less than a high school education, and 38.1% had attended college or higher courses. Monthly family income levels were stratified into 5
Discussion
This was the first survey assessing HAV vaccination rate among adolescents in Korea, where it is difficult to accurately assess HAV vaccination coverage. No registry data were available after vaccination; one must remember whether one has been vaccinated. Therefore, this study included not only HAV vaccination rate based on self-reporting but also measurement of IgG anti-HAV seroprevalence. HAV vaccination rate was 18.9% for students aged 14 to 17 years from southwestern Seoul. IgG anti-HAV
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Conflicts of interest: None to report.