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. (C) 2020 Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of Editrice Gastroenterologica Italiana S.r.l.