Parental perception of and willingness to accept human papillomavirus vaccine for their children amongst civil servants in Ibadan

Abstract

Introduction: Cervical cancer is the second-most common cancer amongst women worldwide and leading cancer in women in developing countries including Nigeria. However, utilisation of the human papillomavirus vaccine (HPV) is quite low, resulting in poor uptake of an important preventive measure to combat cervical cancer. This study was conducted to determine the parental perception of and willingness to accept the HPV vaccine for their children amongst civil servants in Ibadan. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted amongst 400 civil servants in the Oyo state secretariat, Ibadan. Pre-tested interviewer-assisted questionnaires were distributed to the respondents to collect data for 6 weeks. Descriptive statistics including frequency and percentage for categorical variables and mean (standard deviation) for continuous variables were calculated. Results: Almost half (50.3%) and 85% of the total respondents' had heard about the HPV vaccine and were willing to accept HPV vaccine for their children, respectively, while 87.7%, 86.7% and 85.7% of the respondents' were willing to accept HPV vaccine for their children in future if it was free, prescribed by a doctor and included in routine immunisation respectively. A high proportion (81.6%) of the total respondents had good perceptions of the vaccine and the majority of them identified knowledge, safety, effectiveness, cost, potency and fear of side effects of the vaccine as factors influencing its acceptability. Conclusion: Despite the low awareness of the HPV vaccine amongst the study group, most parents had good perceptions regarding the vaccine and were willing to vaccinate their wards.