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Awareness and Knowledge Levels of Turkish College Students about Human Papilloma Virus Infection and Vaccine Acceptance

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Abstract

Awareness of HPV by the target population is an important determinant of vaccine acceptance. The aim of this study is to evaluate the awareness of HPV infection and acceptability of the HPV vaccines among Turkish college students. College students aged 18–30 who were attending a large public university in Ankara participated in this study. The participants were asked to complete a questionnaire to elicit demographic characteristics, awareness level of HPV and HPV vaccine, and willingness to be vaccinated. One thousand one hundred sixty students responded to the invitation email and completed the questionnaire. The mean scores of female students about HPV and HPV vaccine were 7.1/15 and 3.6/9, respectively, while these scores were 7.9/15 and 3.4/9 among male students, respectively. While 51 % percent of female and 33.5 % of male students had heard of HPV and 32.8 % and 18 % of them had heard of HPV vaccine, respectively, only 1.5 % of female and 0.4 % of male students had been vaccinated against HPV. A total of 507 students (43.7 %) had previously heard of HPV. Only 309 (26.6 %) of the participants had previously heard of the HPV vaccine, and 45.1 % of the students were willing to receive HPV vaccination. The main predictors for willingness to be vaccinated were the following: sexual experience, sexual behavior, past history of sexually transmitted infection (STI), and knowledge about HPV and HPV vaccine. Higher awareness levels of HPV and HPV vaccine are significantly related to greater willingness to be vaccinated, and the main reasons for rejecting the vaccine were insufficient information about the vaccine and possible unknown side effects.

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Acknowledgments

The study was approved by the Local Institutional Ethics Committee (approval number: 28.10.2014-10).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Gynecological Oncology, Zekai Tahir Burak Women’s Health Hospital, Talatpasa Blv. Altindag, Ankara, Turkey

    Murat Oz, Nilufer Cetinkaya, Elmas Korkmaz, Sevda Bas & Emre Ozgu

  2. Division of Statistics, Ankara University Science Faculty, Ankara, Turkey

    Aysen Apaydin

  3. Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics, Hitit University, Corum, Turkey

    Tayfun Gungor

Authors
  1. Murat Oz
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  2. Nilufer Cetinkaya
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  3. Aysen Apaydin
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  4. Elmas Korkmaz
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  5. Sevda Bas
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  6. Emre Ozgu
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  7. Tayfun Gungor
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Correspondence to Murat Oz.

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The local Hospital’s Ethics Committee and the University’s Institutional Review Board approved this study.

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There is no financial support in the preparation of the study.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Oz, M., Cetinkaya, N., Apaydin, A. et al. Awareness and Knowledge Levels of Turkish College Students about Human Papilloma Virus Infection and Vaccine Acceptance. J Canc Educ 33, 260–268 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13187-016-1116-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13187-016-1116-0

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