Factors associated with knowledge, attitude, and practice of schoolgirls about vaccination against Human Papillomavirus

Abstract

Objective: to analyze factors associated with knowledge, attitude, and practice of schoolgirls about vaccination against Human Papillomavirus in large and medium-sized cities. Methods: cross-sectional analytical study conducted with 210 schoolgirls. The knowledge, attitude and practice survey was applied, and the vaccination scheme was verified. Association tests, prevalence ratio and Poisson regression with robust variance were used. Results: girls from the large metropolitan area had lower knowledge and practice (p=0.000). Adequacy of Knowledge in the big metropolis among white and catholic girls was higher, as well as that of Attitude. Family income of up to two thousand reais revealed lower adequacy of Attitude and Practice, and age below 12 years was lower for Attitude. Conclusion: factors associated with adequate knowledge about the vaccine against Human Papillomavirus were race and religion; to adequate attitude, were age, race, and income; and to adequate practice, was income. Contributions to practice: enable reflection and awareness about the importance of vaccination against Human Papillomavirus among schoolgirls as well as stimulate the planning of more effective strategies, to incite individuals to establish information exchanges on sexual and reproductive health, considering the social space of each municipality.

Keywords

• health knowledge
• attitudes
• practice; papillomavirus vaccines; adolescent health.