Abstract
Objectives:This study was performed first to assess Thai women’s knowledge and attitude toward Human papillomavirus (HPV) infection and vaccination and second to find out factors associated with knowledge in this regard. Methods:The survey announcement was advertised via Facebook from 17 May 2019 to 14 June 2019 to recruit women aged 18-26 years living in Thailand. A score below 5 out of total score of 10 on the survey was considered as a poor level of knowledge. Multivariate analysis was applied to identify factors associated with HPV infection and vaccination knowledge. Results:A total of 1,175 participants were recruited. The participants’ median age was 22 years. Approximately, 46% of the participants had poor level of knowledge regarding HPV infection and vaccination. Factors associated with poor knowledge included low educational level (adjusted OR, 1.35; 95% CI 1.04-1.77), low family income (adjusted OR, 2.14; 95% CI 1.65-2.78), being Christian (adjusted OR, 4.04; 95% CI 1.22-13.40), being engaged in sexual intercourse (adjusted OR, 0.75; 95%CI 0.58-0.97), and being unvaccinated against HPV infection (adjusted OR, 5.74; 95% CI 3.07-10.74). Conclusion:Nearly half of the Thai women who participated in the survey had poor level of knowledge regarding HPV infection and vaccination, indicating a need for more effective health education intervention. Factors associated with knowledge included socioeconomic status and sexual behavior.
Highlights
Acquired infection with high-risk human papillomavirus (HPV) is often a precursor to cervical cancer and pre-cancer (Burd, 2003; Saslow et al, 2012; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2019a; World Health Organization, 2019a)
Factors associated with poor knowledge included low educational level, low family income, being Christian, being engaged in sexual intercourse, and being unvaccinated against Human papillomavirus (HPV) infection
As knowledge and attitudes toward HPV infection and vaccination have been found to vary by region (Remschmidt et al, 2014; Kittisiam et al, 2016; Chen et al, 2018; Btoush et al, 2019; Shabani et al, 2019), this study was conducted to assess these issues in Thai women using Facebook as a tool for nation-wide recruitment
Summary
Acquired infection with high-risk human papillomavirus (HPV) is often a precursor to cervical cancer and pre-cancer (Burd, 2003; Saslow et al, 2012; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2019a; World Health Organization, 2019a). Health education interventions to increase awareness regarding HPV prevention, including vaccination, are necessary in order to reduce the rates of these cancers (Lowy et al, 2008; World Health Organization, 2014; Arrossi et al, 2017). Various educational interventions have been implemented in order to increase HPV awareness and the rate of HPV vaccination, including distribution of information sheets and educational leaflets (either given directly to specific population or distributing among public people), forming social media campaigns, and designing health education websites (Hughes et al, 2009; Rosen et al, 2018; Leung et al, 2019). Previous studies have found that knowledge and attitudes toward HPV infection and vaccination are individual factors associated with the success of cervical cancer prevention programs, making them important issues to consider when designing a health education program (Nganwai et al, 2008; Gunasekaran et al, 2013; Kittisiam et al, 2016; Chen et al, 2018; He and He, 2018; Btoush et al, 2019). Discovering factors associated with low levels of knowledge can provide foundational information for designing an effective cervical cancer prevention program for a specific region
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