Is there still a necessity for awareness and information about HPV infection and vaccine for adolescent in developing countries?

Abstract

Increasing awareness of human papilloma virus (HPV) and vaccines among the target population is an important factor for decreasing the rate of malignancies related to HPV. The aim of this cross-sectional study was to determine Turkish high school and college students’ knowledge level of HPV and vaccines via a survey. The HPV knowledge scale (HPV-KS) has been developed to measure the level of knowledge about HPV and vaccination. The response rate of ‘Yes’ to the question of whether the participants have heard of HPV and the vaccine was 60.8% and 58.8%, respectively. The lack of information was the commonest reason for not being vaccinated in 54% of the participants. According to the HPV-KS, the median value of the knowledge level of the participants was 35.7 (IQR; 14.3–57.1). The HPV-KS scores were significantly higher among those with parents who had graduated from university and had an income above the minimum wage than those who did not (p = .013 and p = .029, respectively). Current evidence suggests that Turkish adolescents have limited HPV knowledge. Gender, age, education (particularly university and health-related departments), parents’ level of education and income were all important factors in determining the outcome variables. Therefore, it is very important to apply educational programs to raise awareness by medical staff.

Impact Statement

• What is already known on this subject? Human papilloma virus (HPV) infection is a major threat due to the reason of many malignancies, especially cervical cancer, and this problem can be overcome by informing the target population about the screening program and vaccination.

• What do the results of this study add? Lack of knowledge about HPV infection and cost of the vaccine were the main reasons for insufficient vaccination rate among the adolescents.

• What are the implications of these findings for clinical practice and/or further research? In developing countries such as Turkey, the necessity to raise awareness about HPV infection and vaccination has emerged. As a result, it is critical to implement educational campaigns to enhance awareness, particularly by medical staff.

Keywords:

• Human papilloma virus
• knowledge scale
• vaccine
• cervical cancer
• validity and reliability

Author contributions

Ferah Kazancı, M.D.: conception of the work, doing survey, interpretation of data, drafting the work, final approval and agreement. Dilek Yapar, M.D.: conception of the work, performed statistical analysis, final approval and agreement. Cem Yalcınkaya, M.D.: conception of the work, critical revising of the manuscript, final approval and agreement. Mehmet Anil Onan, M.D.: conception of the work, critical revising of the manuscript, final approval and agreement.

Ethics statement

The research was approved by the ethics committee of Gazi University Faculty of Medicine (decision number: 752, Date: 08 October 2018).

Consent form

All participants gave written consent to participate in this study. All participants gave written consent for the anonymous publication of quotes from interviews.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare no competing interests.