Management of chronic Hepatitis B infection in the remote primary health care setting: the search for a suitable guideline

Journal Publication ResearchOnline@JCU
Cross, Virginia;Larkins, Sarah
Sarah Larkins
Abstract

Objective: To identify a regionally appropriate guideline for the primary health care management of chronic Hepatitis B patients in the Torres Strait. Design: Literature review. PubMed (1950–November 2009), Nursing and allied health (CINAHL)-CD (1982–November 2009), and the following databases accessed through INFORMIT: Australian Public Affairs Information Service – Health (1978–November 2009), Aboriginal and Torres Strait Health Bibliography (1900–November 2009), Health & Society Database (1980–November 2009), Health Collection (1980–November 2009), Meditext (1968–November 2009), and Rural and Remote Health Database (1966–January 2006) were searched over a 3-month period from September to November 2009. An Internet search of relevant guidelines and recommendations from professional bodies such as the World Health Organization was also performed. Setting: Remote primary health care. Outcome measures: Initial searching identified 144 articles to include based on the provision of recommendations or guidelines for management of Hepatitis B at the primary care level. Included articles were then reviewed for their appropriateness to the remote primary health care setting against a set of five criteria determined at a consensus meeting of eight local medical officers. Results: Eleven articles were included for final review of which none met all five criteria of appropriateness for the remote primary health care setting. Conclusions: Guidelines need to recognize the difficulties of rural and remote practice and present practical alternatives to urban centred recommendations.

Journal

Australian Journal of Rural Health

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19

ISBN/ISSN

1440-1584

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Issue

2

Pages Count

6

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Publisher

Wiley-Blackwell

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EISSN

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DOI

10.1111/j.1440-1584.2011.01190.x