Assessing HPV and Cervical Knowledge, Preference and HPV Status Among Urban American Indian Women

To evaluate whether or not an educational intervention would lead to a change in knowledge and attitudes about human papillomavirus (HPV), HPV vaccines, and cervical cancer. The HPV status was also investigated for interested participants.

We provided HPV and cervical cancer education to urban American Indian (AI) women 18 and older using a pre and post-knowledge exam to assess knowledge and attitudes. Women were also given the option to perform vaginal self-tests for high risk HPV (hrHPV) analysis immediately after the education.

Ninety-six women participated in our educational sessions. Improvement in performance on a knowledge exam increased from 61.6 to 84.3 percent. Ninety-three women performed the vaginal self-test with 63.1 percent of women preferring vaginal self-testing over conventional screening methods. Thirty-five out of 91 women (38.5 percent) had hrHPV types with 12 of the 35 harboring multiple hrHPV types (13 percent overall).

HPV and cervical cancer education was beneficial for urban AI women with the majority of women preferring vaginal self-testing. HPV self-testing may be a strategy to improve screening rates for cervical cancer. Urban AI women had high rates of hrHPV compared to rural AI populations as reported in previous studies.