Preventive Medicine Reports (Dec 2021)

Beliefs about HPV vaccination and awareness of vaccination status: Gender differences among Northern Italy adolescents

  • Laura Brunelli,
  • Giulia Bravo,
  • Federico Romanese,
  • Marco Righini,
  • Lucia Lesa,
  • Anna De Odorico,
  • Elisa Bastiani,
  • Stefania Pascut,
  • Stefano Miceli,
  • Silvio Brusaferro

Journal volume & issue
Vol. 24
p. 101570

Abstract

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Human papillomavirus (HPV) is one of the most frequent sexually transmitted infectious agents worldwide, and it is responsible for a significant burden of cancers. The aim of this study was to evaluate HPV knowledge and awareness in a sample of Northeastern Italian adolescents and parental support available to them, in order to highlight potential room for improvement towards optimal HPV vaccination adherence.Between April and May 2018 an observational questionnaire-based study was conducted in 1st year students of secondary upper schools in Udine (Italy). We quantitatively evaluated HPV knowledge, awareness and parental support level of male and female adolescents. The contribution of sociodemographic characteristics to HPV vaccination knowledge and uptake were explored using Chi-Square or Fisher test and multivariate logistic.Knowledge about HPV vaccine resulted to be mostly insufficient among enrolled adolescents, with a worrying proportion of them believing that HPV vaccine was expected to prevent HIV/AIDS. Awareness about their vaccination status was poor, and more than half of them were not involved in HPV vaccine uptake deliberation. Girls performed better than boys in relation to knowledge, awareness and engagement.Our results support the hypothesis that HPV vaccine knowledge and uptake can be affected by some gender bias. Improvements in adolescent health education and vaccination strategies are needed to engage and finally protect both genders from HPV.

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