Limitations
HBV co-infections
REGRESSION, RECRUITMENT
The results of this work are comprised of participants undergoing screening from three SiVETs, each of which had their own enrollment criteria and target populations. Because screening efforts encouraged persons without HIV to enroll, and HIV/ HBV co-infections are not uncommon, our estimates of HBV are likely underestimates, even if they might approximate what one might see when screening for an HIV vaccine trial. The results we present here are therefore likely not generalizable to the wider populations of persons not participating in clinical trials. We had missing data for some of the parameters used to ascertain HBV status due to differences in how sites screened for HBV. We therefore had 101 participants with unknown status who were not included in the logistic regression analysis. Data were also missing for some baseline variables i.e., 98 participants with known HBV status were missing education level. However, the multivariable models with and without the number of participants with missing data gave similar results. As we note above, our screening and recruitment efforts focused on persons without HIV which may account for our lower observed prevalence of HBV.