Epidemiological Characteristics of Hepatitis Virus Infection in Adult
Patients Before, During the COVID‐19 Pandemic and After Easing of
COVID‐19 Restrictive Measures in China
Abstract
We aimed to assess the epidemiological characteristics of hepatitis B
virus (HBV) infection in Chinese adults at different phases of the
coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) pandemic, that is, before, during
the pandemic, and after the easing of restrictive measures. We included
20,357 adult patients who visited Mianyang Hospital and had hepatitis B
DNA tests from January 1, 2018, to June 30, 2023. Clinical information
and HBV test results were extracted from the laboratory information
system. We calculated the positive rate of HBV detection by age groups,
gender, seasons, types of patients, and stages of the COVID‐19 pandemic.
Nonlinear associations between age and risk of HBV infection in three
stages of the pandemic were assessed by restricted cubic spline
regression models. Among 20,357 patients, 2,670 (13.1%) were tested as
positive. The highest positive rate was observed in the 18-25 age group
(i.e., 16%). HBV infection showed an insignificant pattern among
seasons. Although there is no statistical significance regarding the
positive rate at three phases of the pandemic, we observed that the rate
went high during the pandemic and saw a sharp decline after easing the
measures among the population ( p < 0.05), which
consisted of our regression models. In addition, regression analyses
suggested that the age effect became weaker after easing all restrictive
measures compared with other stages. Based on our findings, we called
for attention from health professionals and caregivers on the new
epidemiological characteristics of HBV infection in advance to deal with
the potential increase under restrictive measures.