Impact of Health Education on HPV Vaccination

Abstract

To study the impact of health education about human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination among women and to assess the causes for lack of awareness regarding HPV vaccination and lack of willingness in women to take the HPV vaccination. The study was carried out in the rural field practice area of Ramaiah Medical College, Bangalore, India, and was performed among 257 women aged between 15 and 45 years. The study subjects were recruited by a house-to-house survey. A pretest regarding knowledge of cervical cancer and HPV vaccination was conducted. Intervention in the form of health education on cervical cancer and HPV vaccination was imparted. After a gap of 1 week, a posttest was conducted. In the baseline survey, 17% of the participants were aware of cervical cancer, 1.16% knew that HPV is the main cause for cervical cancer, and 1.55% were aware of HPV vaccination. After the health education, all the participants became aware of cervical cancer, 45.52% became aware that HPV is the main cause for cervical cancer, and 99.22% became aware of HPV vaccination. Among the women who were aware, 11.67% were willing to take HPV vaccination and 73.15% cited high cost of the vaccine as the reason for not taking the vaccination. Health education played a major role in increasing the awareness of cervical cancer and HPV vaccine. The high cost of the vaccine formed a major barrier to its implementation.