Awareness of Human Papilloma Virus Vaccination in Health Science Undergraduate Students: A Cross-sectional Study

Abstract

Introduction: Human papilloma virus (HPV) is a common sexually transmitted infection that has been associated to a number of cancer forms. The global rate of HPV vaccination is still low even though the vaccine is available. The current study was conducted to assess awareness of HPV vaccination among undergraduate students of health science institute located in central India. Methodology: The questionnaire-based, cross-sectional study to assess the awareness about Human Papilloma Virus vaccination, was conducted among 1210 health science students. The data were collected by using questionnaire through Google form, tabulated and analyzed for percentage, mean, standard deviation, t test and Chi-square test. Results: The response rate was 68.16%. Although most of the students were aware about cervical cancer being second most common cancer among women in India (53.14%), and about its risk factors (47.68%), only 27.85% knew about the vaccination as a preventive measure for the same. Conclusion: Medical students were more aware in most of parameters of HPV vaccination than other health science students.

Keywords

• Awareness, Health science students, HPV vaccination, Human papilloma virus