Awareness and Attitude Relating to the Human Papilloma Virus and its Vaccines Among Pediatrics, Obstetrics and Gynecology Specialists in Turkey

Background: To determine the level of knowledge on human papillomavirus (HPV) infection and vaccination,and the attitude towards HPV vaccination in pediatricians, obstetricians and gynecologists (OBG). Materialsand
Methods: Participants were administered a 40-question survey, investigating the demographic properties,the knowledge on the HPV infection-vaccination and attitudes towards vaccination.
Results: The study enrolleda total of 228 participants (131 pediatricians and 97 OBGs). At a rate of 99.6%, the participants agreed with thefact that the HPV infection was the most common sexually transmitted disease and 33.8% of the participants hadthe opinion that the HPV vaccination should be administered only in women. The lowest level of HPV vaccinerecommendation was among the pediatrics specialists (59.4%, p=0.012). When asked whether they would havetheir daughters receive HPV vaccination, 79.5% of the participants answered favorably; this rate was 36.7%for the sons. At a rate of 59.5% of the participants thought that the HPV vaccine needed to be included in thenational vaccine schedule. Most of the participants (91.6%) had the idea that reduction of the vaccine costswould increase the vaccination frequency.
Conclusions: We observed that the consideration of the costs and theprejudices relating to the inefficacy of vaccination as well as the inadequate level of knowledge were involved inthe physicians’ resistance to HPV vaccination. We believe that the healthcare professionals should be informedadequately to overcome false beliefs, thereby ensuring success of the HPV vaccine upon inclusion in the nationalvaccine schedule in the future.