Awareness of HPV and HPV vaccination in undergraduate students in the North West region of Turkey: Near future outlook
Abstract
Introduction: Cervical cancer is the second most common cancer affecting women in the world. Human papillomavirus (HPV) is the most common sexually transmitted infection worldwide. The aim of this study was to evaluate the awareness about HPV, risk perception, cervical cancer, and HPV vaccines.
Methodology: The sample of this descriptive cross-sectional study consisted of 396 undergraduate university students from Turkey. Sociodemographic characteristics, reproductive health, knowledge about HPV, and HPV vaccination were questioned.
Results: The percentage of university students with an active sexual life was 10.6%. The knowledge level of families about HPV, and HPV vaccination were not adequate. The awareness of the fact that HPV was a cause of cervical cancer in women and penile cancer in men tended to increase with the increase in the educational level of parents. Those who knew about HPV vaccines were predominantly females.
Conclusions: The results of this study demonstrated that more active education is needed to decrease HPV infections among undergraduate students. Increasing awareness of HPV makes it easier to develop positive behaviors in fighting against it. In order to increase the contribution of young people to educational activities for the community, information about HPV and HPV vaccines should first be included in training programs at universities. To support the development of effective and high-quality public health interventions, young people should be educated so that obstacles to HPV vaccination in various cultural groups can be eliminated. Our findings suggest that awareness about HPV, cervical cancer, and HPV vaccines should be increased.
Copyright (c) 2019 GULDEN AYNACI, ZUHAL GUKSU
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).
