Hepatitis B vaccination coverage among Indian dental students – Systematic review and meta-analysis

Objective To estimate the pooled estimates of hepatitis B vaccination (HBV) coverage among Indian dental students. Methods This systematic review was conducted in accordance with the PRISMA guidelines. The protocol was registered in PROSPERO. A systematic search was conducted in PubMed (1946 onward), CINAHL (1937 onward), Dentistry and Oral Sciences Source (journal-specific coverage), Embase (1947 onward), Web of Science (1900 onward), and Scopus (1970 onward) till July 1st, 2025. Cross-sectional studies conducted among Indian dental students that reported HBV coverage and studies reported in English were included. The meta-analysis was performed via OpenMeta [Analyst] (random effects model with the restricted maximum likelihood method). Results A total of 24 studies that reported the HBV were included. (total sample: 8740 (age range: 18–27 years). The pooled estimate of complete HBV coverage was 53.9% (95%CI: 41.84, 65.97), with high heterogeneity (I 2 = 99.7). Monitoring of the antibody titer was reported in only 5 studies ( n = 504). Egger's regression revealed no publication bias (Z = 1.73; P = 0.08). Meta-regression revealed no significant effect of age or sex distribution on the estimates of HBV coverage. However, studies on clinical dental students reported higher estimates than studies that combined preclinical and clinical students (coefficient: 0.37; P < 0.01). Conclusion Approximately half of the dental students had not completed the three-dose HBV.