Previous studies did not provide substantial evidence for long-term immune persistence after the hepatitis B vaccine (HepB) in preterm birth (PTB) children. Consequently, there is ongoing controversy surrounding the booster immunization strategy for these children. Therefore, we conducted a retrospective cohort study to evaluate the disparities in immune persistence between PTB children and full-term children. A total of 1027 participants were enrolled in this study, including 505 PTB children in the exposure group and 522 full-term children in the control group. The negative rate of hepatitis B surface antibody (HBsAb) in the PTB group was significantly lower than that in the control group (47.9% vs. 41.4%, p = .035). The risk of HBsAb-negative in the exposure group was 1.5 times higher than that in the control group (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] = 1.5, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.1–2.0). The geometric mean concentration (GMC) of HBsAb was much lower for participants in the exposure group compared to participants in the control group (9.3 vs. 12.4 mIU/mL, p = .029). Subgroup analysis showed that the very preterm infants (gestational age <32 weeks) and the preterm low birth weight infants (birth weight <2000 g) had relatively low GMC levels of 3.2 mIU/mL (95% CI: 0.9–11.1) and 7.9 mIU/mL (95% CI: 4.2–14.8), respectively. Our findings demonstrated that PTB had a significant impact on the long-term persistence of HBsAb after HepB vaccination. The very preterm infants (gestational age <32 weeks) and the preterm low birth weight infants (birth weight <2000 g) may be special populations that should be given priority for HepB booster vaccination.

中文翻译：

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早产儿接种乙型肝炎疫苗 5 年后抗体的持续性：使用真实世界数据的回顾性队列研究

先前的研究没有为早产儿（PTB）接种乙型肝炎疫苗（HepB）后的长期免疫持续性提供实质性证据。因此，围绕这些儿童的加强免疫策略一直存在争议。因此，我们进行了一项回顾性队列研究，以评估 PTB 儿童和足月儿童之间免疫持久性的差异。本研究共纳入 1027 名参与者，其中暴露组 505 名 PTB 儿童，对照组 522 名足月儿童。PTB组乙型肝炎表面抗体（HBsAb）阴性率显着低于对照组（47.9% vs. 41.4%，p  = .035）。暴露组的 HBsAb 阴性风险比对照组高 1.5 倍（调整优势比 [aOR] = 1.5，95% 置信区间 [CI]：1.1–2.0）。与对照组参与者相比，暴露组参与者的 HBsAb 几何平均浓度 (GMC) 低得多（9.3 vs. 12.4 mIU/mL，p  = .029）。亚组分析显示，极早产儿（胎龄<32周）和早产低出生体重儿（出生体重<2000g）的GMC水平相对较低，分别为3.2 mIU/mL（95% CI：0.9-11.1）和7.9分别为 mIU/mL（95% CI：4.2–14.8）。我们的研究结果表明，PTB 对 HepB 疫苗接种后 HBsAb 的长期持续存在有显着影响。极早产儿（胎龄<32周）和早产儿低出生体重儿（出生体重<2000g）可能是应优先接种HepB加强疫苗的特殊人群。