Investigation of knowledge and acceptability of human papillomavirus vaccine and assessment of health education among employed urban women in China / 肿瘤研究与临床

ABSTRACT

Objective To investigate knowledge of cervical cancer,human papillomavirus (HPV) and HPV vaccine and attitude to HPV vaccine among employed urban women in China,and to assess willingness to vaccinate their children.Methods This study was conducted in women from 16 factories or companies in Beijing,Hangzhou,Changsha,Chcngdu and Guangzhou.A questionnaire on cervical cancer,HPV knowledge and HPV vaccine acceptability was administered to participants before and after educational intervention.Results A total of 1 146 women were surveyed from August to November,2011.The awareness rates of cervical cancer,HPV and HPV vaccine were 95.06 ％,27.98 ％ and 12.82 ％,respectively.Only 20.68 ％ knew that HPV was related to cervical cancer.After educatioual instruction,89.26 ％ understood the relationship between HPV and cervical cancer (x2 =93.414,P ＜ 0.001).Only 19.25 ％ women were unwilling to allow their children to be vaccinated.The main reasons were as followsworried about vaccine safety (23.52 ％),belief that their child was not at risk (21.92 ％),lack of scientific evidence for the vaccine (13.01％),and worricd about vaccine efficacy (12.79 ％).Conclusions In general,there is a high acceptability of HPV vaccine to prevent cervical cancer among employed urban Chinese women after educational intervention.However,some women remain reluctant to vaccinate their children due to concern about vaccine safety and efficacy.