Human Papillomavirus Vaccination Acceptability among Female University Students in South Africa

Abstract

Background: The objectives of this present study were to assess the awareness of cervical cancer and its risk factors among female undergraduates in South Africa, and to determine the their level of acceptability of Human Papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in March 2013 among 440 full time undergraduate female students. Results: Of those students who never had sex (n=163), 96 (58.9%) had ever heard of cervical cancer and only 12 students (12.5%) knew that HPV causes cervical cancer. More than a third (35.4%) of the students correctly said that sexual intercourse before age of 18 years is a risk factor for cervical cancer and 55.2% of the students knew about the Pap smear test which is used for screening cervical cancer. The majority (77.3%) were willing to accept HPV vaccination. Results revealed that students who knew about the Pap smear test, and were aware that having multiple sex partners, sexual intercourse before the age of 18 years, smoking and having contracted any STDs are risk factors for cervical cancer were more likely to accept HPV vaccination compared to other groups. Conclusions: The general knowledge of South African female university students about cervical cancer is not sufficient but they have positive attitudes toward getting vaccinated with the HPV vaccine.

Knowledge, Attitudes and Behaviors of Women Over 20 Years Old on Cervix Cancer in Istanbul, Turkey

“…'Smoking is a risk factor for cervical cancer' knowledge ratio were lower than our research results in studies conducted both in Turkey and other countries (Uysal and Birsel, 2009;Hoque et al, 2013;AlDarwish et al, 2014). Even, the results of research studies made on between health care workers were lower than our study (Ertem, 2009;Coskun et al, 2014).…”

“…While there are researches which knowledge level ratios are higher than ours in the literature (Paul et al, 2012;Ortashi et al, 2013;Wen et al, 2014). HPV and cervical cancer knowledge level of women is lower than ours in many studies (Khoo et al, 2011;Hoque et al, 2013;Al-Azri et al, 2014). There are lower results than our study (Ersan et al, 2012), higher results than our study (Coskun et al, 2014) and similar results to our study (Ozyer et al, 2013) about 'HPV causes cervical cancer' in the literature.…”

“…While studies in Turkey which's topic is about early age of first intercourse causing cervical cancer was between 2.9%-86.5% (Ertem, 2009;Uysal and Birsel, 2009;Bekar et al, 2013;Coskun et al, 2013;Sogukpınar et al, 2013;Karadag et al, 2014;Yilmazel and Duman, 2014). In studies conducted outside of Turkey the results was found between 18.3%-68.8% (Khoo et al, 2011;Hoque et al, 2013;Thippeveeranna et al, 2013;Al-Darwish et al, 2014;Kruiroongroj et al, 2014). Research results were various in the literature.…”

“…Participants answered correctly at lower rates (39.4%, 35.7%) the expression of 'long-term use of birth control pills and have an early age of first sexual intercourse increases the risk of cervical cancer'. At researches in literature, rate of knowledge of 'long-term use of birth control pills is one of the risk factors for cervical cancer' was between 5.2%-90.7% (Ghojazadeh et al, 2012;Getahun et al, 2013;Hoque et al, 2013;Al-Darwish et al, 2014). While studies in Turkey which's topic is about early age of first intercourse causing cervical cancer was between 2.9%-86.5% (Ertem, 2009;Uysal and Birsel, 2009;Bekar et al, 2013;Coskun et al, 2013;Sogukpınar et al, 2013;Karadag et al, 2014;Yilmazel and Duman, 2014).…”

Attitudes and Practice of Cervical Cancer Screening among Female University Students from 25 Low, Middle Income and Emerging Economy Countries

“…University students are not representative of young adults in general, and the cervical cancer screening attitude and practice may be different in other sectors of the population. Future studies of this nature should include knowledge, attitude and practice of Human Papillomavirus (HPV), the main cause of cervical cancer, vaccination (Ghojazadeh et al, 2012;Rashwan et al, 2012;Hoque and Ghuman, 2013).…”