International Journal of

ADVANCED AND APPLIED SCIENCES

EISSN: 2313-3724, Print ISSN: 2313-626X

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 Volume 11, Issue 1 (January 2024), Pages: 178-185

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 Original Research Paper

Spatiotemporal distribution and burden of hepatitis diseases in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia: A nationwide analysis

 Author(s): 

 Mohamed Ali Alzain 1, 2, Rafat Zrieq 1, 3, *, Reem M. Ali 4, Anas O. Tirawi 5, Awfa Y. Alazzeh 6, Rozan Attili 7, Hamoud F. Alshammari 8, Fahad D. Algahtani 1

 Affiliation(s):

 1Department of Public Health, College of Public Health and Health Informatics, University of Ha’il, Ha’il, Saudi Arabia
 2Department of Community Medicine, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Dongola, Dongola, Sudan
 3Applied Science, Research Center, Applied Science Private University, Amman, Jordan
 4Department of Clinical Laboratory Sciences, Faculty of Applied Medical Sciences, University of Ha’il, Ha’il, Saudi Arabia
 5Faculty of Medicine, Yarmouk University, Irbid, Jordan
 6Department of Clinical Nutrition, College of Applied Medical Sciences, University of Ha’il, Ha’il, Saudi Arabia
 7Medical Laboratory Science, Pharmacy and Medical Science, Hebron University, Hebron, Palestine
 8Department of Health Administration, College of Public Health and Health Informatics, University of Ha'il, Ha'il, Saudi Arabia

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 * Corresponding Author. 

  Corresponding author's ORCID profile: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8586-7583

 Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

 https://doi.org/10.21833/ijaas.2024.01.021

 Abstract

Hepatitis infection poses a significant challenge to global health. Saudi Arabia is also at risk from this illness, but as of now, there hasn't been a comprehensive countrywide study to examine how widespread and serious this disease is within the nation. This study aimed to look into how hepatitis disease is distributed over time and space within Saudi Arabia and to understand its impact. We used data from the Saudi Arabian Ministry of Health to conduct descriptive analyses. Our time-based analysis from 2014 to 2019 showed a rise in the number of hepatitis cases. In 2019, our place-based analysis found that the rate of hepatitis infections differed across various areas, with the Jazan region experiencing the highest rates. Hepatitis B was identified as the most frequent type, making up 68% of all hepatitis infections, followed by hepatitis C (27%) and hepatitis A (5%). Among the regions, Al-Jouf had the highest rate of hepatitis A infections. Jazan saw the highest rate of hepatitis B, and Mecca had the highest rate for hepatitis C. Our study of different population groups found that men, Saudi nationals, and individuals older than 45 years had higher rates of hepatitis compared to others. These results offer important insights for public health authorities and medical professionals to create effective prevention and treatment strategies that are specifically designed for those most at risk and areas that are most affected.

 © 2024 The Authors. Published by IASE.

 This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

 Keywords

 Hepatitis infection, Spatiotemporal distribution, Incidence rates, Public health interventions

 Article history

 Received 16 September 2023, Received in revised form 10 January 2024, Accepted 11 January 2024

 Acknowledgment 

The authors acknowledge the Scientific Research Deanship at the University of Ha'il-Saudi Arabia for funding this project (grant number RG-191354).

 Compliance with ethical standards

 Ethical consideration

The study was approved by the Biomedical Ethics Committee of the Ministry of Health-Ha'il branch (IRB log number: 2020-22).

 Conflict of interest: The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

 Citation:

 Alzain MA, Zrieq R, Ali RM, Tirawi AO, Alazzeh AY, Attili R, Alshammari HF, and Algahtani FD (2024). Spatiotemporal distribution and burden of hepatitis diseases in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia: A nationwide analysis. International Journal of Advanced and Applied Sciences, 11(1): 178-185

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 Figures

 Fig. 1

 Tables

 Table 1 Table 2

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