Verbal Screening Development of the Risk Behavior of Hepatitis B Virus among People in Community

Abstract

This study aimed to develop a verbal screening of the risk behaviors of Hepatitis B Virus (HBV) among people in community. The study samples were people aged 26 years and over in Yasothon province. The study process included gathering of conceptual framework, specifying definitions, identifying risk behaviors through a literature review, an in-depth interview of 3 experts, and a focus group discussion with 4 HBsAg positive persons. The preliminary screening form was evaluated for content validity by six experts using content validity index (CVI). An internal consistency of the verbal screening comprising of 12 items was tried out with 30 individuals, followed by actual screening among 1,285 samples in the community. It was found that the CVI of each item ranged from 0.83 to 1.00, and the total CVI score was 0.99 with the alpha score of 0.67. The resulting score ranged from 0 (lowere risk) to 9 (higher risk). The area under ROC curve was 79.20 (95%CI 69.10-89.20). The cut-off point score was 2 with the 83.30% sensitivity, 63.90% specificity, and 64.10% accuracy. In conclusion, the verbal screening demonstrated acceptable psychometric properties of both validity and reliability. Thus, health professional should apply verbal screening of HBV risk among the people in their geographic areas. In addition, further study should be conducted to develop similar screeing tool for other risk populations.