The Relationship Between Parents’ Health Literacy Levels and Their Attitudes Towards Human Papillomavirus Vaccination

Abstract

Aim: Our study was conducted to evaluate the relationship between health literacy levels and HPV vaccination attitudes of parents. Methods: Our study was planned as a descriptive study and it was completed with 418 parents who were admitted to Bolu Abant İzzet Baysal Training and Research Hospital, between March 2022 and June 2022. After written consent was obtained from the participants, they were given a survey consisting of sociodemographic questions prepared by the researcher and European Health Literacy Scale. The survey form prepared by the researcher included questions about the participants’ gender, age, level of education, occupation, level of income, the state of being informed about HPV vaccination, the source of information about HPV vaccination, their beliefs about the safety and efficacy of HPV vaccination and their information about HPV vaccination. Results: Of the participants, 178 (42.6%) were male and 240 (57.4%) were female. While 358 (85.6%) of the parents stated that they did not have information about HPV vaccine, 37 (8.8%) stated that they had been informed by health professionals. It was found that 128 (30.6%) of the parents believed HPV vaccine was safe, while 112 (26.8%) of the parents did not believe that it was safe and 178 (42.6%) of the parents were undecided. 355 (84.9%) of the parents thought that HPV vaccine could protect from sexually transmitted diseases. Conclusion: We think that vaccination rates can be increased as desired by including HPV vaccine in the national vaccination program in Turkiye, as in many other countries in the world, and with studies to increase health literacy. Keywords: health literacy, HPV vaccines, parents, behavior