Abstract
In preparation for the introduction of human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine, we investigated awareness and knowledge of HPV/HPV vaccine and potential acceptability to HPV vaccine among mothers with a teenage daughter in Weihai, Shandong, China. A cross-sectional survey was conducted in 2013 with a sample of 1850 mothers who had a daughter (aged 9–17 years) attending primary, junior and senior high schools. In the final sample (N = 1578, response rate 85.30%), awareness of HPV was reported by 305 (19.32%) mothers. Awareness varied significantly by daughter’s age (P<0.01), mother’s education level (P<0.01), mother’s occupation (P<0.01), household income (P<0.01) and residence type (P<0.01). Knowledge about HPV/HPV vaccine was poor with a mean total score of 3.56 (SD = 2.40) out of a possible score of 13. Mothers with a higher education level reported higher levels of knowledge (P = 0.02). Slightly more than one-fourth (26.49%) of mothers expressed their potential acceptability of HPV vaccine for their daughters. Acceptability increased along with increased daughters’ age (P<0.01), household income (P<0.01) and knowledge level (P<0.01). House wives and unemployed mothers had the highest acceptability (P<0.01). The most common reasons for not accepting HPV vaccination were “My daughter is too young to have risk of cervical cancer (30.95%)”, “The vaccine has not been widely used, and the decision will be made after it is widely used (24.91%)”, “Worry about the safety of the vaccine (22.85%)”. Awareness and knowledge of HPV/HPV vaccines are poor and HPV vaccine acceptability is low among these Chinese mothers. These results may help inform appropriate health education programs in this population.
Highlights
More than 270 000 women die of cervical cancer worldwide every year and over 85% of these deaths occur in low and middle income countries [1]
Human papillomavirus (HPV) infection is the main cause for the development of cervical cancer [2,3,4,5,6], with 70% of cervical cancers in the globe caused by HPV16 and HPV18 types [1]
According to the recommendation by World Health Organization (WHO) [1], one targeted population of HPV vaccine should be adolescent girls after vaccines are made available in China, since girls between the ages of 13–20 years old are in the period of sexually active or pre-active, which is the optimal age for HPV vaccination [2]
Summary
More than 270 000 women die of cervical cancer worldwide every year and over 85% of these deaths occur in low and middle income countries [1]. Two HPV vaccines are licensed worldwide [8, 9] and several new multivalent HPV vaccines are under development [10]. HPV vaccination is considered to be a primary strategy for cervical cancer prevention by the World Health Organization (WHO) [1]. The United Kingdom, Hungary and other developed countries have introduced HPV vaccine into their national vaccination programs [11,12]. By August 2014, 58 countries had introduced HPV vaccine in their national immunization programs [13]
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