Hepatitis B vaccine coverage and risk factors for lack of vaccination in subjects with HBsAg negative liver cirrhosis in Italy: still, much work should be done

Background: in Italy, Hepatitis-B-vaccine is advised and provided free-of-charge for subjects with chronic liver disease (CLD), including liver cirrhosis.

Aims: to evaluate HB-vaccine-coverage and variables associated with lack of vaccination in cirrhotic patients with particular attention to cirrhosis' etiology.

Methods: cirrhotic patients of any etiology (excluding HBsAg+) referring to 8 tertiary-centers were prospectively enrolled for a-six-months-period in 2019. Subjects were asked if they received HB-vaccine previously. Multiple-logistic-regression-analysis was performed to identify independent predictors of lack of vaccination.

Results: 731 cases were recruited. Overall-vaccine-coverage was 16.3% (23.7% in those younger than 65y, 10.0% in those older than 64y; p<0.001). Lack of information was the most frequent reason (78.5% of cases) reported by the 608 unvaccinated subjects, without statistical difference by area-of-birth (77.3% in Italians, 80.0% in people-born-abroad). Age>64 y (OR: 4.27; CI 95%: 2.52-7.24), educational level<9 years (OR: 3.52; CI 95%: 2.10-5.90), residence in South/Sardinia (OR 2.52; CI 95%:1.45-4.39), birth-abroad (OR 5.09; CI 95%: 1.07-24-.17), and Child grade B/C(OR 2.68; CI 95%: 1.35-5.33) all resulted independent predictors of likelihood of lack of vaccination.

Conclusions: Vaccination-rate in cirrhotic patients results very low. Vaccine-coverage implementation in these subjects, is warranted. Vaccine should be provided in early CLD, when immunization is most effective.