It has been generally accepted that the level of HBs Ag positive rate in healthy. Korean adults is estimated to be 7-9% around 1980. And hepatitis B has emerged as one of the major communicable diseases in Korea to be controlled in the near future. However, dozens of papers on that subject reported since 1970 have pursued only clinical or descriptive epidemiologic findings mainly to figure out the characters, size, and pattern of the infections in terms of HBs antigenmia. Successively to a descriptive epidemiologic study on HBs antigenemia, a case-control study on the risk factors of HBs antigenemia has been carried out.
A structured questionnaire, in which included variables related to SES, personal hygienic habit and behavior, close contacts, medical care utilization, and sexual contact etc., was developed with pilot works and pre-test(See Annex). The questionnaire has been administered by 2 trained interviewers to 870 randomly selected voluntary blood donors at the time of blood collection. Out of the total of 870 donors, 63(7.2%), .have been revealed as HBsAg positive by RPHA technique.
Based on sex, 2-years age interval, and blood type, a total of 63 randomly matched pairs (one HBsAg positive to two negatives) were analyzed in order to find out momentous risk factors of hepatitis B ,infections in Korea. Risk factors such as, medical personnel in close contacts, acupuncture history of donor, and sharing habit of tooth-brush appeared to be statistically significant(See Table 2, p. <0. 1), and´. their odds ratios were 6. 0, 2. 1, and 1. 7, respectively. Many lines of findings strongly suggest that oral routes and/or non-parenteral routes of transmission are of importance in Korea.
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