Human papillomavirus (HPV) awareness and vaccine receptivity among Senegalese adolescents

Abstract

Objective To examine HPV vaccine awareness and receptivity among adolescents and young adults in Senegal. Methods Participants from 6 high schools and 5 community centers across five regions of Senegal (n=2,286) completed a self-administered questionnaire in October and November 2014. The study assessed HPV awareness and receptivity toward receiving the HPV vaccine. Multivariable logistic regression explored statistically significant relationships between the predictor variables and both outcomes. Results 27% had heard of HPV. Among those who had heard of HPV (n=616), only 28% indicated willingness to vaccinate. Multivariable analysis showed that respondents from rural areas had 63% higher odds (95% CI: 1.24, 2.12) of having heard of HPV than those in urban areas. Respondents with fathers who had completed higher education 41% higher odds (95% CI: 1.04, 1.92) of being aware of HPV (p <0.05); however, every level of father’s education (as compared to no education at all) was negatively associated with willingness to vaccinate. Respondents who had previously spoken to a healthcare professional about the HPV vaccine had 80% higher odds (95% CI: 1.16, 2.81) of willingness to vaccinate than those who did not speak to a provider about the vaccine. Conclusions Health care providers and parents are important stakeholders in disseminating HPV vaccine information. Given the overall low levels of awareness, there is a great opportunity for public health communication efforts to craft health messaging and information in a way to maximize receptivity, outlining benefits and providing information on the minimal risks associated with the vaccine.

Cervical Cancer, Human Papillomavirus Infection, and Vaccine-Related Knowledge

“…Numerous previously reported surveys have demonstrated that 50% to 85% of women know about cervical cancer in Asia, 17 , 18 which is in accordance with the observations of our study. Human papillomavirus awareness was higher in Denmark (75.8%) and Sweden (74.8%) compared with Norway (62.4%) and Senegal (63%), 19 , 20 while studies from Yunnan, China (52.6%), Xinjiang, China (0.14%, 10 out of 7100), and Brazil (37%) have reported low levels of knowledge and awareness about HPV that are consistent with the findings of this study. 13 , 21 , 22 However, the levels of knowledge and awareness about HPV observed in the present study are higher than those in previously reported studies 13 , 23 but are still low.…”

Assessment of knowledge and attitude of medical and nursing students towards screening for cervical carcinoma and HPV vaccination in a tertiary care teaching hospital

“…[20][21][22][23][24] A study by Massey et al indicated low awareness of HPV; among those who had heard of HPV, just 28% were willing to receive the HPV vaccine. 25 Overall vaccination rates were very low in our sample cohort. Only 5.5% of the participants had been vaccinated against HPV.…”

Knowledge Gaps of STIs in Africa; Systematic review

“…Nine included studies assessed the awareness of 5,157 Africans in regard to HPV, four studies were conducted in Nigeria [35,36,41] and one in each of Madagascar, Morocco, Mali, South Africa and Senegal [43,49,51,54,70,71] . The oldest among the study included was conducted in 2010 while the newest was conducted in 2016 (Table 1).…”