Chronic Hepatitis B Virus Is Undertreated

FRIDAY, May 3, 2024 (HealthDay News) -- Underassessment and undertreatment of chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) is seen globally, according to a study published online May 1 in the Journal of Hepatology.

Sahith Kudaravalli, from Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, and colleagues examined rates of evaluation and treatment in patients from the Real-world Effectiveness from the global Alliance for HBV (REAL-B) consortium. The analysis included 12,566 adult treatment-naïve patients with chronic HBV from 25 centers in nine countries.

The researchers found that 73.3 percent of patients received adequate evaluation, and among the adequately evaluated, 32.6 percent were treatment-eligible by American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases criteria. Of the treatment-eligible individuals, 83.3 percent initiated nucleos(t)ide analogues (NAs). Similar findings were seen when using European Association for the Study of the Liver criteria. When adjusting for age, sex, cirrhosis, and ethnicity plus region, female sex was associated with adequate evaluation (adjusted odds ratio, 1.13), but female treatment-eligible patients were significantly less likely to initiate NAs (adjusted odds ratio, 0.54). The lowest evaluation and treatment rates were seen among Asian patients from the West.

"Improved linkage to care with linguistically competent and culturally sensitive approaches is needed," the authors write.

Several authors disclosed ties to the pharmaceutical industry.

Abstract/Full Text