TITLE:
Lack of Knowledge and Cognitive Bias of Hepatitis B among Middle School Students in Border Cities and Their Influencing Factors: A Case Study of a Middle School in Guangxi
AUTHORS:
Lizhu Lu, Junxiu Zhou, Simei Qin, Ruixia Tang, Jinming Ma, Youyuan Wei, Xingtian Wu, Qiulan Feng, Xiurong Yang, Xiaomin Huang, Xinhua Huang, Xiaoping Pan
KEYWORDS:
HBV, Cognitive Bias, Middle School Students, Influencing Factors
JOURNAL NAME:
Journal of Biosciences and Medicines,
Vol.14 No.11,
November
12,
2026
ABSTRACT: Objective: Viral hepatitis B (HBV) is a global public health problem, and the risk of infection and disease burden are prominent in rural areas in central and western China due to insufficient health knowledge. Adolescents’ cognition and attitude towards hepatitis B are related to self-protection and the construction of a socially inclusive environment, but there is a lack of relevant research on secondary school students in this area. The purpose of this study was to explore the knowledge mastery, attitude characteristics and influencing factors of hepatitis B students in a middle school in Guangxi, and to provide localized reference for regional hepatitis B prevention and control and adolescent health promotion. Methods: A total of 1175 high school students from a middle school in Guangxi were selected as the survey subjects, and a self-made questionnaire was used to conduct the survey, covering the basic information of the respondents, the disease/carrying of hepatitis B by themselves and their relatives, the basic knowledge of hepatitis B and their willingness to learn. The database was established by Excel, and the SPSS 23.0 software was used for statistical analysis, and the graph analysis was carried out by GraphPad software, and the difference was statistically significant with P Results: The effective recovery rate of this survey was 100%, and 92.26% of the samples were rural students, and 77.02% of the parents had junior high school education level or below. The total awareness rate of students’ basic knowledge of hepatitis B was only 31.09%, and there was a significant deviation in core cognition: only 44.17% knew that hepatitis B was an infectious disease, and the correct awareness rate of hepatitis B transmission through the respiratory tract and digestive tract was 28.68% and 26.81% respectively, and the awareness rate of hepatitis B was not related to bad living habits was only 6.89%. 58.13% of the students were willing to take the initiative to learn about hepatitis B, which mainly came from school health activities and media (58.38%). There was no statistical significance between gender on the knowledge cognition of hepatitis B (P > 0.05), and the place of origin, parental education level, and whether they were hepatitis B patients/carriers had significant effects on the cognition of some core knowledge points (P 0.05). Conclusion: The cognitive level of middle school students in Guangxi is closely related to the place of origin, family background and health status. It is necessary to take schools as the core, incorporate hepatitis B knowledge into normalized health courses, link families to carry out targeted education, correct cognitive misunderstandings, reduce hepatitis B discrimination, and then improve the social support environment for hepatitis B patients and enhance the effectiveness of regional hepatitis B prevention and control.