Study Population
The present study utilized data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys (NHANES) spanning from 2009 to 2016. NHANES is a nationally recognized center that examines demographic characteristics, population health, and certain diseases, and provides publicly available data. The investigation included a total of 40,439 participants; however, due to age restrictions on certain questionnaires, individuals under the age of 18 or over the age of 69 (N=19,791) were excluded. Additionally, participants without complete responses to the sexual behavior questionnaire regarding ”ever had vaginal, anal, oral sex” (N=3,241) and those with missing data on anti-HBc examination (N=838) were also excluded. Finally, 16,569 participants were included (Figure 1).