Knowledge about the human papillomavirus among high school and university students a comprehensive questionnaire study from Southeast Turkey

Abstract

Aim:To investigate the level of knowledge among high school and university students about the human papillomavirus (HPV) and its vaccine. Methods: Our study included 3039 Grade 9-12 students from 12 high schools and university students enrolled in medical and non-medical departments. The students completed a 30-item questionnaire, which included three demographic items (sex, age and grade) and measured knowledge regarding HPV, HPV vaccine, smear test and cervical cancer. Students responded by selecting one of the choices "true/false/I don't know." Results: One thousand seven hundred and forty eight high school students (57.5%) and 1291 university students (42.5%) completed the questionnaire. One thousand three hundred and fourty one students were male (44.1%) and 1698 were female (55.9%). Mean age was 18.8 (min: 14 max: 33). The university group had significantly more correct responses (P = 0.001). The high school group had significantly more unknown responses (P = 0.001). In both groups, female and male students had comparable correct responses (High school; female: 25.28%, male: 24.45%, P = 0.42; University; female: 62.46%, male: 63.09%, P = 0.35). While medical students had more correct responses than both nursing students and students from non-medical university departments, nursing students had more correct responses than students from the non-medical university departments (P = 0.001). Conclusion: Knowledge about HPV is limited in adolescence, which marks the beginning of sexual activity. Educational programs targeted at adolescents are needed to negate the increasing rate of HPV-related gynecological cancers in our population. The HPV vaccine should urgently be introduced to the routine immunization schedule.

Knowledge regarding Human Papilloma Virus, Related Diseases and Preventive Measures Among Female Undergraduates of a Selected University in Sri Lanka

“…In contrast to the current study findings, studies performed in Turkey revealed that university students mostly adopt the internet, television and print media as their source of information on sexual health (Bayramoğlu Tepe & Ozcorekci, 2020;Borlu et al, 2016). Further, a study from Greece that included young women of ages 17-24 reported that 69.7% had sufficient information regarding HPV and 95.9% knew about the vaccine (Michail et al, 2014).…”

“…Having more knowledge among Medical and Allied Health Science undergraduates specially among nursing students has been found in studies conducted elsewhere (Bayramoğlu Tepe & Ozcorekci, 2020;Borlu et al, 2016;Yam et al, 2017). High level of awareness has shown a correlation with higher educational levels as well (Borlu et al, 2016).…”

Do University Students Adhere to WHO Guidelines on Proper Use of Face Masks during the COVID-19 Pandemic?—Analysis and Comparison of Medical and Non-Medical Students

“…Moreover, medical students more commonly used single-use masks and wore face protection for longer periods of time [25]. This is not surprising, as the differences in health-related attitudes and behaviors between medical and non-medical students have been previously documented [26][27][28]. The criterion that non-medical students complied significantly better with was the disposure of single-use masks after their use at work.…”

Is Face and Mask Touching a Real Struggle During the COVID-19 Pandemic? A Prospective Study Among Medical Students

“…It was documented previously that the health-related attitudes, behaviors, and practices differ between medical and non-medical students ( 12 ). Moreover, it was observed that medical students used face masks more commonly, for longer time periods, and less frequently reused the disposable masks ( 13 ).…”