Awareness of human papillomavirus infection, testing and vaccination in midwives and midwifery students in Greece

Abstract

Midwives play an important role in the implementation of cervical cancer screening. We assessed the knowledge of human papillomavirus (HPV) infection and of its relationship with cervical cancer in 107 midwives and 29 graduating midwifery students. The majority of midwives (78.5%) were aware that a viral infection causes cervical cancer, whereas only 48.3% of the students knew this (p = 0.003). Only one midwife (0.9%) was not aware of HPV infection compared with 10.3% of the students (p = 0.029). Midwives were also more knowledgeable of the relationship between HPV infection and cervical cancer and of the availability of a vaccine against HPV infection (p = 0.005 and p < 0.0001, respectively). In conclusion, Greek midwives have a satisfactory level of knowledge about cervical cancer and HPV infection, in contrast to midwifery students. It is important to better educate midwifery students in order to facilitate the incorporation of HPV testing and vaccination in clinical practice.

Awareness of human papilloma virus, cervical cancer and HPV vaccine in healthcare workers and students of medical and nursing schools

“…Previously in a similar study of SOM and midwives, midwives were found to have more knowledge about HPV and HPV vaccine than SOM. 14 Main source of knowledge in our subjects was school (37%), followed by media (newspaper-television, 36%) and internet (32%), similar to the previous reports.…”

Determination of Knowledge of Turkish Midwifery Students about Human Papilloma Virus Infection and its Vaccines

“…In contrast to these studies, Cirilo et al (2010) found, in their study on nursing students, that 45% of first year students had knowledge of HPV infections, while 100% of the upper class students had knowledge of the disease (Cirilo et al, 2010;Juraskova et al, 2011). Similarly, in Greece study on midwives and midwifery students, a large percentage (90%) of the midwifery students were identified as having knowledge of HPV infection, while 58.6% were identified as having knowledge of the HPV vaccine (Dinas et al, 2009) According to the our and similar study findings (with a few exceptions), the level of knowledge among midwifery students HPV infection and HPV vaccination is insufficient. Healthcare providers, especially midwives are essential to improve access to and uptake of the HPV vaccine.…”

Knowledge, Attitudes, Practices and Barriers Towards HPV Vaccination among Nurses in Turkey: a Longitudinal Study

“…Similarly, when the literature was viewed, it was seen that of nurses 70.1% in Nigerian (Makve and Anorlu, 2011), 78.5% in Greece (Dinas et al, 2009), 710% in New Zealand (Henninger, 2009), 80.0% in United Arap Emirates (Ortashi et al, 2012) and 81.8% in Thailand (Phianmongkhol et al, 2011) knew about the relationship between CC and HPV infection. In Turkey 92.9% of the pediatricians (Yildirim et al, 2009), 76.9% of nursing students , in Christchurch 73.0% of health care providers (Henninger et al, 2009) and in Hong Kong 44.4% of primary care physicians (Wong et al, 2013) knew that HPV infection was the most important risk factor for CC.…”