Assessment of Human Papillomavirus Vaccine Knowledge and Attitudes Among Adolescent School Girls in Debre Berhan City, Ethiopia: A Community-Based Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

Background and Aims

Chronic human papillomavirus (HPV) infections are the main cause of cervical carcinoma (CC). It has a significant worldwide disease burden and is the fourth most prevalent malignancy in women. Cervical cancer is the second most common cancer among Ethiopian women, causing an estimated 4884 deaths and 7095 new instances of diagnosis annually. This study aimed to evaluate knowledge and attitudes of HPV vaccine among adolescent school girls.

Methods

Between June 2, 2023 and August 15, 2023, a study was conducted in Debre Berhan City. All adolescent girls between the ages of 14 and 18 who attended school in the chosen kebeles were eligible for participation in the current study. Schools were selected using a simple random sampling method. Epidata 4.2.0 was utilized for data entry and SPSS 25 for the analysis. There were three types of logistic regression used: multivariate, univariate, and descriptive statistics. At 95% CI, a p-value of less than 0.05 was deemed statistically significant.

Results

We had 601 respondents. The majority of the respondents were in the age range of 16–17 years (51.3%). More than one-fourth of participants started sexual activity, (29.5%) and only (22.1%) participants had information about the HPV vaccine. The majority (83%) of participants had poor knowledge about the HPV vaccine. More than half of the participants (57.4%) had no information about CC and only (26.8%) study participants had information about CC. Only (14.5%) of participants knew the cause of CC was HPV. Below one-fourth of (23.4%) participants knew the HPV vaccine used to prevent HPV infection. More than half (54.2%) of the participants had a negative attitude towards the HPV vaccine. Participants who were not informed about the HPV vaccine before the current study were approximately 65% less likely to be aware of the HPV vaccine compared to those who had prior knowledge of it (AOR = 0.65; 95%CI = 0.42,0.92; p = 0.003).

Conclusions

Adolescent girls had negative attitudes and poor knowledge of the HPV vaccine. Adolescent girls should be educated about CC and HPV infection to improve their knowledge and attitude about the HPV vaccine using health professionals and mass media.