Knowledge, Attitudes of Human Papillomavirus Vaccine, and Intention to Obtain Vaccine Among Korean Female Undergraduate Students

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine knowledge about the human papillomavirus and attitudes toward human papillomavirus and human papillomavirus vaccination among Korean female undergraduate students. Moreover, this study sought to identify factors associated with intention to obtain the human papillomavirus vaccine. A cross-sectional study was conducted with 297 Korean female undergraduate students. Data were collected using a self-administered questionnaire. Collected data were analyzed with descriptive statistics, t-test or ANOVA, and stepwise multiple regression analysis. Only 37.8% of the participants were aware of human papillomavirus. The percentage of correct answers for knowledge about human papillomavirus was 40.6%. Factors associated with intention to obtain the human papillomavirus vaccine were: wanting more education about the vaccine, disease severity, knowledge of human papillomavirus, awareness of the human papillomavirus vaccine, human papillomavirus attributes, and susceptibility; these variables accounted 31.6% of the variance in scores for intention to obtain human papillomavirus vaccination. Findings from this study suggested a need for more active education to reduce the risk of human papillomavirus infection among female undergraduate students. Educational programs should be developed and evaluated, specifically focused on disease severity, susceptibility, awareness of human papillomavirus vaccine, and attributes of human papillomavirus.

Effects of a Peer Cervical Cancer Prevention Education Program on Korean Female College Students' Knowledge, Attitude, Self-efficacy, and Intention

“…This finding was consistent with those from a previous study on a peer health education program that reported an increase in adolescents' primary prevention knowledge about HPV (Ferrara et al, 2012). Previous studies reported that increased knowledge was associated with improved cervical cancer prevention behaviors, such as condom use, Pap tests (Saha et al, 2010), and the intent to practice cervical cancer prevention behaviors (Hsu et al, 2009;Kang & Kim, 2011). The participants in this study reported pre-intervention knowledge levels of 45.4% for the experimental group and 45.5% for the control group, neither reaching 50%.…”

“…However, Korean women in their 20s and 30s are relatively less aware than women in their 40s and 50s of cervical cancer's severity and the importance of early check-ups for cervical cancer, placing these age groups in a blind spot for cervical cancer check-ups (Han, 2011). Previous Korean studies have demonstrated low rates of condom use (Han, 2011;Kim, 2009), Pap testing (Kim, 2009), and HPV vaccinations (Kang & Moneyham, 2010;Kang & Kim, 2011) among Korean female college students.…”

“…Therefore, providing HPV education could be an important first step in promoting cervical cancer prevention behaviors. Moreover, a recent Korean study (Kang & Kim, 2011) reported that 85.5% of female college students expressed interest in receiving HPV prevention education.…”

“…A questionnaire was developed based on previous studies (Kang & Kim, 2011;Lee & Park, 2011) and a literature review. The knowledge scale included 27 true or false items: 13 on HPV, 7 on cervical cancer, 5 on HPV vaccination, and 2 on condom use.…”

“…Attitude was assessed using a questionnaire based on previous studies (Hsu et al, 2009;Kang & Kim, 2011) and HBM subscales. The questionnaire included 16 items on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree): 2 on perceived susceptibility to cervical cancer, 3 on perceived seriousness, 3 on perceived benefits, 4 on perceived barriers, and 4 on cue to action.…”