University students' attitudes and knowledge levels about Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) and HPV vaccine

Abstract

Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) is one of the common sexually transmitted infections.  It causes many diseases, especially cervical cancer, genital warts and penis cancer.  The aim of this research is to determine university students' knowledge and attitudes towards HPV infection - HPV vaccine and to identify factors that will affect their HPV knowledge levels. In the research, a four-part survey was administered via Google Forms to 275 students studying at associate, undergraduate and graduate levels of various universities.  The first part of the survey aims to determine the socio-demographic characteristics of the participants.  The second part measures the general level of knowledge about HPV and the HPV vaccine.  The third part contains questions about risky sexual behaviors that may cause the spread of HPV infection. The fourth part aims to determine the attitudes of university students towards HPV and the HPV vaccine.  Validity and reliability analyzes were conducted on the attitude questions and 11 questions were eliminated and 9 questions were evaluated.  Jamovi and SPSS 26.0 programs were used in the research.18.2% of the research participants had their first sexual intercourse at the age of 18 or younger, 4.7% had multiple partners, 22.2% did not know what HPV was, and 67.3% did not receive sexual health education.  84.7% of the participants have heard that there is a vaccine for HPV, but only 10.2% are aware of the vaccine types (Medicine company 1, Medicine company 2) available in Turkey and only 9.5% have been vaccinated.  Explanatory factor analysis (EFA) was applied to the data obtained as a result of the application carried out with the participants of the research. As a result of the analysis, items with item-total correlations below 0.3 were removed and a 9-item form was obtained. In the study, 7 factors that created a significant difference in HPV knowledge score and 4 factors that created a significant difference in HPV attitude were observed. HPV attitude has significantly affected HPV knowledge. Receiving sexual health education affected both HPV knowledge level and HPV attitude.  It has been noticed that people access information about HPV mostly through the internet, so their level of knowledge is not affected by their attitude to talk about sexually transmitted diseases.  Additionally, five factors have been found to influence HPV vaccination. Factors affecting knowledge acquisition should be taken into consideration when planning training to improve young adults' sexual health protection skills.  Preparation of printed or digital resources and training programs that focus on the deficiencies indicated by these factors is necessary to prevent diseases that may arise in the future.