Abstract

Awareness and attitude towards Human Papilloma Virus vaccine among Medical Students of a Premier Medical College, Mysuru

Background: Cervical cancer is a relatively neglected disease in terms of advocacy, screening, and prevention from professional or public health organizations. As preventing cancer with the help of a vaccine is a revolutionary concept, awareness, and education about it will have important implications in the implementation of this strategy. Aim & Objective: To assess the knowledge about Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) to create awareness among the population and to assess awareness and attitude towards the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) Vaccine among Medical Students. Methodology: A cross-sectional study was conducted among medical students, after obtaining written consent for participation, a pre-tested semi-structured questionnaire was distributed to all students of both sexes studying MBBS in 2nd and 3rd year who are exposed to clinical postings and 1st year MBBS students who are studying non clinical subjects were included in the study. Descriptive statistical measures like percentages were used for qualitative data and quantitative data were expressed as mean and standard deviation. Appropriate statistical tests were applied using Statistical Package for Social Sciences Version 22 software and expressed statistically at a p-value less than 0.05. Results: 210 (57.7%) were below 20 years and 233 (64%) were females and about 173 (47.5%) were from 1st term MBBS and 191 (52.5%) were from 7th term MBBS students. There is an increased acceptance of the Human Papilloma Virus vaccine among female and male students which was found to be statistically significant <0.001. Conclusions: The overall knowledge about Human Papilloma Virus is very low among medical students and also vaccine uptake is very low and amenable barriers exist against the vaccine.

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