Background : Carotid atherosclerosis was known to be associated with systemic inflammatory status. A hepatitis B virus infection was one of the chronic inflammatory diseases. The aim of the present analysis was to investigate the relationships in a population sample. Methods: A cross-sectional study was performed to 281 subjects (mea age; 43.8 짹 SD, 7.2 years). All the participants were examined for the carotid intima-media thickness (IMT) in both common carotid, carotid bulb, and internal carotid arteries. Hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) and IgG antibodies against hepatitis B and C virus (anti-HBs and anti-HCV) were determined by enzyme linked immnosorbent assays. Results: Twelve subjects (4.3%) were HBsAg seropositive and 6 (2.1%) were anti-HCV positive but, the positivity does not affect the mean carotid IMT. However, hepatitis B-exposure group including both HBsAg positive and anti-HBs positive without vaccination history showed significantly higher carotid IMT (mean 짹 SD, mm; 0.757 짹 0.107 vs. 0.728 짹 0.105, P = 0.031), even adjusting for the potential confounders. And in the subgroup having anti-HBs, carotid IMT was lower in the hepatitis B vaccinated subjects than others (0.725 짹 0.103 vs. 0.760 짹 0.111, P = 0.019). Conclusion : Subjects exposed to hepatitis B pathogen, even though they had anti-HBs, showed the higher carotid IMT, and the participants with a vaccination history demonstrated the lower IMT values.