{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,30]],"date-time":"2026-07-30T11:38:03Z","timestamp":1785411483869,"version":"3.56.0"},"reference-count":0,"publisher":"World Health Organization, Western Pacific Regional Office","issue":"3","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,15]],"date-time":"2026-07-15T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1784073600000},"content-version":"unspecified","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/3.0\/igo\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Western Pac Surveill Response J"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Problem: Antiviral therapy for chronic hepatitis B (CHB) reduces morbidity and mortality and improves quality of life. Achieving high levels of adherence is challenging due to multiple barriers, including medication fatigue, stigma, transportation \u00a0and limited health literacy.\nContext: Suboptimal adherence to antiviral therapy for CHB is problematic in Kiribati, particularly among high-risk groups including pregnant women and individuals with cirrhosis.\nAction: During January\u2013August 2025, a community volunteer intervention was initiated on Kiritimati, a remote island of Kiribati, to address adherence to CHB antiviral therapy. Community volunteers were assigned to patients positive for hepatitis B surface antigen who were commencing antiviral therapy and were pregnant or had cirrhosis. During home visits, volunteers provided education and encouraged medication adherence and clinic follow-up. Adherence in the intervention group was compared with adherence in positive patients being treated on other remote islands without the intervention.\nOutcome: Adherence was measured by medication bottle counts. Outcomes were assessed by overall group adherence and individual adherence &gt;80%. Group adherence was 77.4% (240.5\/310.75) in the volunteer intervention group compared with 52.5% (700\/1333) in the group without it (P &lt; 0.001). Overall adherence among pregnant women in the intervention group was 89.7% (52\/58). Individual adherence &gt;80% was met in 58.8% (30\/51) of the intervention group and 34.1% (70\/205) in the control group (P = 0.0012).\nDiscussion: Although findings are preliminary and the intervention and control groups were not matched, this pilot suggests community volunteers are a promising intervention to improve CHB treatment adherence in a high-prevalence Pacific island setting. This strategy could also be explored for other chronic conditions where adherence is important.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.5365\/wpsar.2026.17.3.1348","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,22]],"date-time":"2026-07-22T09:20:50Z","timestamp":1784712050000},"source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["A pilot programme of community volunteers to improve hepatitis B medication adherence, Kiribati, 2025"],"prefix":"10.5365","volume":"17","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0008-3690-1077","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Thomas","family":"Russell","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Internal Medicine, Tungaru Central Hospital, Ministry of Health and Medical Services, Tarawa, Kiribati"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-7370-6379","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Caroline","family":"Lee","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Hepatitis B Free, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-0435-2906","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Alice","family":"Lee","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Hepatitis B Free, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-6176-0132","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"David Carl","family":"Hilmers","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/02pttbw34","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"publisher"}],"name":"Baylor College of Medicine"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"3383","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,15]]},"container-title":["Western Pacific Surveillance and Response"],"original-title":[],"link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/ojs.wpro.who.int\/ojs\/index.php\/wpsar\/article\/download\/1348\/1296","content-type":"application\/pdf","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"text-mining"},{"URL":"https:\/\/ojs.wpro.who.int\/ojs\/index.php\/wpsar\/article\/download\/1348\/1296","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,22]],"date-time":"2026-07-22T09:20:50Z","timestamp":1784712050000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/ojs.wpro.who.int\/ojs\/index.php\/wpsar\/article\/view\/1348"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,15]]},"references-count":0,"journal-issue":{"issue":"3","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,2]]}},"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.5365\/wpsar.2026.17.3.1348","relation":{},"ISSN":["2094-7313","2094-7321"],"issn-type":[{"value":"2094-7313","type":"electronic"},{"value":"2094-7321","type":"print"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,15]]}}}