Genomic DNA from 288 cases with chronic HBV infection and 288 controls who spontaneously recovered from HBV infection was analyzed for five SNPs in the STAT4 gene (rs7574865, rs7572482, rs7582694 rs11889341, and rs8179673).Our analysis revealed that all the minor alleles of the four SNPs (rs7574865, rs7582694, rs11889341, and rs8179673) had an association with overall decreased risk to HBV infection [p = 0.040, OR 0.762 (95 % CI 0.593-0.981); p = 0.011, OR 0.686 (95 % CI 0.535-0.878); p = 0.023, OR 0.751 (95 % CI 0.586-0.962); p = 0.002, OR 0.670 (95 % CI 0.521-0.861), respectively].