Knowledge, attitudes, practices and barriers towards HPV vaccination among nurses in Turkey: a longitudinal study

Human papilloma virus (HPV) occurs in women of all age groups, and causes cervical, anal, vaginal, vulvar, penile and oropharyngeal cancers. The aim of the study was to discover what nurses know about HPV infection, testing and vaccination and to determine vaccine practice of their daughters and perceived barriers.

This cross-sectional and prospective study was carried out nurses who have worked in a hospital between January and June 2014. Pre-test and post-test were used to evaluate the nurses' knowledge about HPV infection, testing and vaccination. This study was performed with nurses who had girls between 9 and 26 years of age for evaluating the behavior of vaccination after three months of education.

The mean of pre-test and post-test scores about HPV infection, which included 22 items, were 8.2±5.6 and 19.2±1.5, respectively. Before education the HPV testing knowledge score was remarkably poor (1.9±1.7 over 5), after education it increased to 4.8±0.5. The mean HPV vaccine knowledge score were 3.7±2.7 (pre-test) 7.3±0.8 (post-test) on a 0-8 scale. The difference between mean total pre-test (13.9±9.1) and post-test (31.3±1.9) scores was statistically significant (p<0.001). After three months of education, only two of the nurses' daughters were vaccinated. The main reason was noted by nurses were not willing to be vaccinated was cost, doubts about safety and efficacy related to the vaccine. About one-third of nurses declared that they would receive the vaccine for their daughter later.

Nurses have a crucial role in the prevention, treatment, increasing public awareness and care for population. The education of the nurses about HPV infection, test and vaccination will play an important part decreasing cancer mortality and morbidity.