Awareness regarding human papillomavirus and willingness for vaccination among college students with or without medical background in Guizhou Province

ABSTRACT

This cross-sectional epidemiological study aimed to investigate awareness regarding human papillomavirus (HPV) and willingness for vaccination among college students with or without medical background in Guizhou Province, China. A logistic regression model was used for univariate and multivariate analyses of cognition to determine factors influencing willingness for vaccination. In total, 2,540 questionnaires were collected, of which 2,360 were valid. The medical and nonmedical groups included 737 (31.2%) and 1,623 (68.8%) individuals, respectively. The medical group had heard of HPV and its vaccines more frequently than the nonmedical group, with the former also having greater awareness than the latter (P < .001). Females (1,325, 56.1%) had heard of HPV and its vaccines more frequently than males (1,035, 43.9%), with the former also having greater awareness than the latter. The cost, safety, and efficacy of the HPV vaccine and lack of knowledge regarding HPV and its vaccines were the main barriers for vaccination. The overall level of knowledge regarding HPV and its vaccines was lower in the nonmedical group and males than in the medical group and females. To help promote willingness for vaccination among the nonmedical group and males, strategies that deepen their knowledge regarding the HPV vaccine are needed.

KEYWORDS:

• Human papillomavirus
• human papillomavirus vaccine
• college students
• awareness
• acceptability

Acknowledgments

We are grateful to all university students who volunteered to participate in this project.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Author contributions statement

Qiongdan Hu: Conceptualization, Methodology, Investigation, Formal Analysis, Writing – Original Draft; Yuanqin Rui: Conceptualization, Methodology, Investigation, Formal Analysis, Writing – Original Draft; Jing Jiang: Data Curation, Visualization; Jing Yang: Investigation, Validation; HanYun Yao: Resources; XiaoFang Yang: Resources; Zhe Liu: Resources; Chencui Li: Resources; Hong Pan:Conceptualization, Resources, Supervision, Funding Acquisition; Yan Xie: Conceptualization, Funding Acquisition, Resources, Supervision, Writing – Review & Editing.

Data availability statement

All the data and materials are available on requesting to the corresponding author.

Ethics approval and consent to participate

The need for ethics approval was waived by Ethics Committee of Zunyi Medical University.

Waiver for informed consent to participate was taken from Ethics Committee of Zunyi Medical University.

All methods were performed in accordance with the relevant guidelines and regulations of Law on the Rights and Interests of College Students.

Supplemental data

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed on the publisher’s website at https://doi.org/10.1080/21645515.2023.2295992.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Start-up Research Fund for 2020 Start-up Foundation for Doctors of Zunyi Medical University [QKH-PTRC[2019]-032]; Nature Science Foundation of Guizhou Provincial [QKH-J[2022]YB612]; 2022 City School Joint Foundation Project [QKH-PTRC[2020]-018 & ZYKH-HZ-Z[2021]292]; 2021 City School Joint Foundation Project [QKH-PTRC[2019]-003 & ZYKH-HZ-Z[2020]64]; Education Reform Project Foundation of Guizhou Provincial [SJJG2022-02-166].