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Understanding Knowledge and Barriers Related to Hepatitis B for Vietnamese Nail Salon Workers in the City of Philadelphia and Some of Its Environs

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Abstract

In the United States (U.S.), up to 2.2 million individuals have been chronically infected with hepatitis B virus (HBV). Many nail salon workers are at risk for HBV as they are coming from high-risk and traditionally underserved communities. To understand barriers and knowledge associated with HBV in the Vietnamese nail salon community, the Health Belief Model (HBM) was used to qualitatively assess the health needs for the prevention of HBV among Vietnamese nail salon workers in Philadelphia through focus groups and interviews (N = 19). Results revealed several themes that highlight barriers within the Vietnamese nail community. Major themes were the lack of knowledge related to hepatitis B, including significant misconceptions related to symptoms, and how hepatitis B is transmitted and prevented. There were also several barriers to health care access within the Vietnamese nail community including the cost of health care, long work hours, lack of insurance and lack of understanding of current community resources. Additionally, discrimination and stigma related to those infected with hepatitis B emerged as a theme from this data. Those interviewed also noted that the nail training and licensing they received did not highlight hepatitis B and other infectious diseases that can be spread within the nail salon.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the participants for sharing their experiences. We are also grateful to Nancy Nguyen, the executive director of Vietlead, for facilitating this project.

Funding

This project was made possible through the 2018 Drexel University/Community Driven Research Day Pilot Grant. Dr. Tran Huynh was also supported by her career development award CDC/NIOSH K01OH011191.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Hepatitis B Foundation, 3805 Old Easton Rd., Doylestown, PA, 18902, USA

    Catherine Freeland & Chari Cohen

  2. Dornsife School of Public Health, Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA, USA

    Tran Huynh

  3. Vietlead, 320 W. Oregon Ave, Philadelphia, PA, 19148, USA

    Nga Vu & Tracy Nguyen

Authors
  1. Catherine Freeland
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  2. Tran Huynh
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  3. Nga Vu
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  4. Tracy Nguyen
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  5. Chari Cohen
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Contributions

CF, TH, and CC conceptualized the project. CF, TH, NG, TN participated in the data collection and data analysis. All authors contributed to the interpretation of the results, edited and approved the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Tran Huynh.

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Freeland, C., Huynh, T., Vu, N. et al. Understanding Knowledge and Barriers Related to Hepatitis B for Vietnamese Nail Salon Workers in the City of Philadelphia and Some of Its Environs. J Community Health 46, 502–508 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10900-020-00878-w

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10900-020-00878-w

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