Knowledge and Attitudes of Medical Students about Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) Vaccination and Associated Factors

Introduction: The prevalence of human papilloma virus (HPV) is growing in the world. According to the precancerous role and the importance of prevention, human papilloma virus vaccination is considered in all countries. The knowledge and attitude of patients have a considerable effect on HPV injection. It seems that higher knowledge level of physicians can have significant effect on justification and informing target group for vaccination. Objective: The aim of this study was to determine the level of knowledge and attitude of medical students regarding human papilloma virus vaccination and associated factors in Guilan University of Medical Sciences. Methods: This analytic cross-sectional study was carried out on 90 medical students who entered in 2005 and 2006 by census method. Inclusion criteria were studying in final year and would like to participate in the study. In 2012 Data were gathered by a questionnaire including three sections: demographic characteristics (6 questions), knowledge (20 questions) and attitude (26 questions). In scoring knowledge questionnaire, correct, don’t know and incorrect answers received 1, 0 and -1 respectively. 1-3 likert scale was used to score the attitude questions. Agree, don’t know and disagree received 3, 2 and 1 respectively. The level of knowledge score was -20 to 20 points and the attitude included 26-78 points. For data analysis, descriptive statistics including mean, standard deviation, frequency and analytic statistics including T-test and Pearson correlation coefficient were used. Results: Findings indicated that most participants (82.2%) were female and 66.7% aged less than 25 years. The main source of information about HPV was from courses taken during medical school (57%). Mean of knowledge score was 5.17±3.24 (answers ranging 5-13) and mean of attitude score was 52.16±5.04 (answers in ranging 38-63). There was no significant difference between knowledge and attitude about HPV and sex, age groups, marital status and medical student’s source of information. Also, no correlation was noted between knowledge and attitude about HPV (P=0.28, r=0.11). Conclusion: Based on study results, the level of Knowledge and attitude of medical students about HPV vaccination was low. Also in attention to the source of students' information, special attention to educational contents for knowledge and attitude promotion is important for future physicians. Therefore educational programs are needed to increase students' knowledge during study especially during clinical education on HPV and vaccination. On the other hand with attention to the role of physicians in giving information to society, better knowledge and understanding of students regarding role of vaccination and decreasing mortality of cervical cancer can take a step to promote the condition of societal health.