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Human papillomavirus infection and its vaccines: Knowledge and attitudes of primary health clinic nurses in Kelantan, Malaysia

Background: Cervical cancer though preventable is still the leading cause of cancer death among women secondary to breast cancer. Persistent infection with HPV has been causally linked to the disease. A school based HPV vaccination program was introduced in late 2010 in Malaysia and nurse support is...

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Main Authors: Norwati, Daud, K, Jeyachelvi, Juwita, Shaaban
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: 2016
Subjects:
R Medicine (General)
Online Access:http://eprints.unisza.edu.my/7565/1/FH02-FP-16-06684.jpg
http://eprints.unisza.edu.my/7565/
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spelling my-unisza-ir.75652022-09-13T05:05:40Z http://eprints.unisza.edu.my/7565/ Human papillomavirus infection and its vaccines: Knowledge and attitudes of primary health clinic nurses in Kelantan, Malaysia Norwati, Daud K, Jeyachelvi Juwita, Shaaban R Medicine (General) Background: Cervical cancer though preventable is still the leading cause of cancer death among women secondary to breast cancer. Persistent infection with HPV has been causally linked to the disease. A school based HPV vaccination program was introduced in late 2010 in Malaysia and nurse support is essential for its success. Objectives: To determine nurses knowledge and attitudes about HPV infection and its vaccines, and factors associated with their knowledge. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted among nurses working at primary health clinics in Kelantan from mid-June till the end of July 2014. Its involved 330 nurses selected through multistage random sampling. A validated self-administered questionnaire consisting of 11 items for the knowledge domain and eight items for the attitude domain was used. Results: The response rate of the study was 93.7%. The mean knowledge and mean attitude (SD) scores were 5.37 (1.76) and 29.8 (3.51) respectively. Only 24% knew that HPV is the most common sexually transmitted infection and 67% correctly answered that Gardasil vaccine can protect against four types of HPV. Nearly 60% of participants wrongly answered that HPV vaccines cannot be offered to sexually active women. Likewise, 70.9% participants were not aware that HPV vaccine may be appropriate for females aged 9 through 26 years. Though 90% of participants believed that the vaccine is safe, nearly half of them were unsure about efficacy. From multiple linear regression analysis, among the factors tested only participant’s level of education showed a statistically significant association with the HPV knowledge score (p <0.001). Conclusions: This study indicates nurses have favorable attitudes towards HPV vaccination; however they have significant knowledge deficit and major misunderstanding in critical knowledge items. Among the factors tested, nursing qualification is the only factor that is significantly associated with the nurses knowledge score. 2016 Article PeerReviewed image en http://eprints.unisza.edu.my/7565/1/FH02-FP-16-06684.jpg Norwati, Daud and K, Jeyachelvi and Juwita, Shaaban (2016) Human papillomavirus infection and its vaccines: Knowledge and attitudes of primary health clinic nurses in Kelantan, Malaysia. Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention, 17 (8). pp. 3981-3986. ISSN 15137368
institution Universiti Sultan Zainal Abidin
building UNISZA Library
collection Institutional Repository
continent Asia
country Malaysia
content_provider Universiti Sultan Zainal Abidin
content_source UNISZA Institutional Repository
url_provider https://eprints.unisza.edu.my/
language English
topic R Medicine (General)
spellingShingle R Medicine (General)
Norwati, Daud
K, Jeyachelvi
Juwita, Shaaban
Human papillomavirus infection and its vaccines: Knowledge and attitudes of primary health clinic nurses in Kelantan, Malaysia
description Background: Cervical cancer though preventable is still the leading cause of cancer death among women secondary to breast cancer. Persistent infection with HPV has been causally linked to the disease. A school based HPV vaccination program was introduced in late 2010 in Malaysia and nurse support is essential for its success. Objectives: To determine nurses knowledge and attitudes about HPV infection and its vaccines, and factors associated with their knowledge. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted among nurses working at primary health clinics in Kelantan from mid-June till the end of July 2014. Its involved 330 nurses selected through multistage random sampling. A validated self-administered questionnaire consisting of 11 items for the knowledge domain and eight items for the attitude domain was used. Results: The response rate of the study was 93.7%. The mean knowledge and mean attitude (SD) scores were 5.37 (1.76) and 29.8 (3.51) respectively. Only 24% knew that HPV is the most common sexually transmitted infection and 67% correctly answered that Gardasil vaccine can protect against four types of HPV. Nearly 60% of participants wrongly answered that HPV vaccines cannot be offered to sexually active women. Likewise, 70.9% participants were not aware that HPV vaccine may be appropriate for females aged 9 through 26 years. Though 90% of participants believed that the vaccine is safe, nearly half of them were unsure about efficacy. From multiple linear regression analysis, among the factors tested only participant’s level of education showed a statistically significant association with the HPV knowledge score (p <0.001). Conclusions: This study indicates nurses have favorable attitudes towards HPV vaccination; however they have significant knowledge deficit and major misunderstanding in critical knowledge items. Among the factors tested, nursing qualification is the only factor that is significantly associated with the nurses knowledge score.
format Article
author Norwati, Daud
K, Jeyachelvi
Juwita, Shaaban
author_facet Norwati, Daud
K, Jeyachelvi
Juwita, Shaaban
author_sort Norwati, Daud
title Human papillomavirus infection and its vaccines: Knowledge and attitudes of primary health clinic nurses in Kelantan, Malaysia
title_short Human papillomavirus infection and its vaccines: Knowledge and attitudes of primary health clinic nurses in Kelantan, Malaysia
title_full Human papillomavirus infection and its vaccines: Knowledge and attitudes of primary health clinic nurses in Kelantan, Malaysia
title_fullStr Human papillomavirus infection and its vaccines: Knowledge and attitudes of primary health clinic nurses in Kelantan, Malaysia
title_full_unstemmed Human papillomavirus infection and its vaccines: Knowledge and attitudes of primary health clinic nurses in Kelantan, Malaysia
title_sort human papillomavirus infection and its vaccines: knowledge and attitudes of primary health clinic nurses in kelantan, malaysia
publishDate 2016
url http://eprints.unisza.edu.my/7565/1/FH02-FP-16-06684.jpg
http://eprints.unisza.edu.my/7565/
_version_ 1744358608015982592
score 13.211869

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