Hepatitis Delta Virus Infection: Cross-sectional Study in Patients With Chronic Hepatitis B Virus Infection

The method of estimating prevalence based on the assumption of binary distribution will be applied to the entire study sample and each subgroup. The prevalence rate will be estimated by dividing the number of positive cases by the sample size. The 95% confidence interval of the prevalence will be calculated based on the binary distribution assumption. Prevalence will be estimated for each sex, age, and disease group (chronic hepatitis B, chronic hepatitis B with hepatocellular carcinoma, and cirrhosis).

Testing for differences in genotypic distribution between disease groups will be analyzed using the Chi-squared test. The difference is statistically significant with p < 0.05.

The determination of the association between risk factors and HDV will be analyzed across the total study sample. The multivariate logistic regression method will be applied in determining the variables related to the probability of HDV infection. In this analysis, HDV infection (positive or negative) is the dependent variable; Independent variables include factors that reflect demography, lifestyle, environment, occupation, clinical history (including vaccinations), and history of drug use. There are many independent variables and these variables can be correlated, determining which one affects HDV infection is a major challenge. To solve this problem, we will apply the Bayesian Model Averaging method in the R library. Based on the results of this analysis, a prognostic model of the risk of HDV infection will be established.