Assessment of Knowledge, Attitude and Practice regarding HPV Vaccination and Cervical cancer among Medical students of a Tertiary care hospital in Chennai, Tamil Nadu.
Main Article Content
Abstract
Background: Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) infection is one of the most common sexually transmissible diseases (STD) and believed to affect nearly 30-50% of the sexually active young women. Cervical cancer being one of the most common in the world and the second most common cause of cancer in India, 70% of which is caused by types 16 & 18. Two vaccines were developed and launched for primary prevention of HPV and both have shown good efficacy. These vaccines were developed from the major capsid protein the L1 protein creating a VLP (Virus like Particle) which retains the immunogenicity but lacks infectivity due to absence of genetic material.
Objectives: This study aims at assessing the level of knowledge, attitude and practice regarding HPV Vaccination and cervical cancer among the Medical students and to evaluate the relationship between their socio-demographic details and their knowledge regarding HPV Vaccination.
Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among the Medical college students of a tertiary care hospital in Chennai. 204 students were studied by convenient sampling method. A pre-tested, validated, structured and self-administered questionnaire was given and the desired information was elicited. Chi square test was used to test the significance (p <0.05)
Results: A total of 204 students were studied of which 65 (31.9%) were males and 139 (68.1%) were females. It is observed that year of study, place from where they come and socio-economic status have a statistically significant relationship with knowledge about KPV vaccination and cervical cancer.
Conclusion: A major portion of the medical students have only a poor or moderate knowledge about HPV vaccination. Hence it is highly essential to spread awareness about the benefits of HPV vaccination among the medical students to achieve a nationwide compliance to the vaccine.