Clustering of chronic hepatitis B screening intentions in social networks of Moroccan immigrants in the Netherlands

• Published in: BMC public health Vol. 20; no. 1; pp. 344 - 12
• Main Authors: Hamdiui, Nora, Buskens, Vincent, van Steenbergen, Jim E., Kretzschmar, Mirjam E. E., Rocha, Luis E. C., Thorson, Anna E., Timen, Aura, Wong, Albert, van den Muijsenbergh, Maria, Stein, Mart L.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England BioMed Central Ltd 17.03.2020; BioMed Central; BMC
• Subjects: Behavior; Clustering; Diagnosis; Health aspects; Health behavior; Health screening; Hepatitis; Hepatitis B; Immigrants; Intention; Interferon; Medical tests; Moroccan immigrants; Moroccans; Netherlands; Noncitizens; Psychological aspects; Screening; Social aspects; Social networks; Social organization; Netherlands; Morocco; Screening; Netherlands; Moroccan immigrants; Intention; Social networks; Hepatitis B; Respondent-driven sampling
• ISSN: 1471-2458; 1471-2458
• DOI: 10.1186/s12889-020-8438-x

Early detection, identification, and treatment of chronic hepatitis B through screening is vital for those at increased risk, e.g. born in hepatitis B endemic countries. In the Netherlands, Moroccan immigrants show low participation rates in health-related screening programmes. Since social networks influence health behaviour, we investigated whether similar screening intentions for chronic hepatitis B cluster within social networks of Moroccan immigrants. We used respondent-driven sampling (RDS) where each participant ("recruiter") was asked to complete a questionnaire and to recruit three Moroccans ("recruitees") from their social network. Logistic regression analyses were used to analyse whether the recruiters' intention to request a screening test was similar to the intention of their recruitees. We sampled 354 recruiter-recruitee pairs: for 154 pairs both participants had a positive screening intention, for 68 pairs both had a negative screening intention, and the remaining 132 pairs had a discordant intention to request a screening test. A tie between a recruiter and recruitee was associated with having the same screening intention, after correction for sociodemographic variables (OR 1.70 [1.15-2.51]). The findings of our pilot study show clustering of screening intention among individuals in the same network. This provides opportunities for social network interventions to encourage participation in hepatitis B screening initiatives.