He WQ, et al. - Since 1991, the infant immunization schedule in the United States has included hepatitis B vaccine. Its effectiveness against HBV infection and its impact on mortality have been investigated in this study.

• From the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 1999–2018, researchers included a total of 64,107 participants in the main analysis, with 29,600 (40.7%) having completed HBV vaccination (three or more doses, vaccinated).

• There was a higher prevalence of vaccine-induced immunity among vaccinated vs unvaccinated participants (47.2% vs 7.4%).

• In the universal infant vaccination era, there appeared substantial effectiveness of HBV vaccine against HBV infection and strong protection remained maintained for 20 years.

• Further, there was a reduced risk of all-cause and cancer-related mortality in correlation with receiving the HBV vaccine.