Social determinants, racial discrimination, knowledge of HBV, and HBV-related stigma among patients with chronic hepatitis B

Abstract Background. HBV-related Stigma has a detrimental impact on health outcomes of people living with HBV. Studies show that consequences of stigma include admission to school or loss of employment, impediment to marriage/having children, and barriers to accessing health services. Few studies focused on factors associated with Stigma. We examined social determinants, racial discrimination, knowledge of HBV transmission, and HBV-associated stigma among Korean American chronic hepatitis B (CHB) patients 18 years and older. Methods. As a part of ongoing project in the period of August 2021– April 2022, 291 CHB patients completed the entry survey either in Korean (n=238) or English (n=53) at two clinics in East Coast and California. The 6-question of hepatitis B quality of life (HBQOL) – stigma (n=6, alpha = .93) was administered. The construct of stigma was categorized as low/medium and high. Participants’ age, gender, marital status, employment, education, having family history of HBV infection, knowledge of HBV transmission, and racial discrimination were included. A descriptive and multivariable logistic regression analysis were used. Results. The average age of patients was 59.70 years (SD 10.34; range 24-84 years). 54% were males. The mean years of CHB diagnosis was 26.92 (SD 10.19; range 5 -52 years). The measure of racial discrimination (n=9, alpha = .87) was categorized into low, medium, and high. Multivariable logistic regression showed that gender and racial discrimination were associated with HBV-related stigma: Females had higher level of stigma than males (aOR=2.46, 95% CI: 1.42-4.27). Those with high level of racial discrimination were more likely to have stigma than those with low racial discrimination (aOR=2.27, 95% CI: 1.14-4.51). In addition, age was not linearly related to HBV stigma (see graph): Those younger than 45 years old reported the increased stigma, while those between 46 and 65 had the decreased stigma. Conclusion. This study indicates that racial discrimination and gender are important predictors of stigma in this CHB patient cohort. Future studies will identify other psychosocial factors to develop effective intervention programs to reduce stigma in consideration of younger age group. Citation Format: Hee-Soon Juon, Hie-Won Hann, SoHye Park, Ho Bae, Mimi Chang, Ann Klassen. Social determinants, racial discrimination, knowledge of HBV, and HBV-related stigma among patients with chronic hepatitis B [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 15th AACR Conference on the Science of Cancer Health Disparities in Racial/Ethnic Minorities and the Medically Underserved; 2022 Sep 16-19; Philadelphia, PA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2022;31(1 Suppl):Abstract nr B068.