Relationship between human papillomavirus and serum vitamin D levels: a systematic review.

BACKGROUND: Human papillomavirus (HPV) is one of the most prevalent sexually transmitted diseases worldwide. The present review was conducted to accumulate evidence on the relationship between cervicovaginal human papillomavirus infection and serum vitamin D status. METHODS: Electronic databases including Web of Science, Embase, Scopus, and PubMed were searched by different combinations of keywords related to "human papillomavirus" and "vitamin D", obtained from Mesh and Emtree with AND, and OR operators without any time restriction until December 24, 2022. Selection of articles was based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Newcastle-Ottawa Scale was used for quality assessment. The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) checklist was applied for reporting. RESULTS: In total, 276 citations were retrieved. After removing duplicates, and non-related articles, the full texts of 7 articles were reviewed including 11168 participants. Three studies reported that there was a positive relationship between vitamin D deficiency and cervicovaginal human papillomavirus while three studies did not. One study showed a significant positive association between higher vitamin D stores and short-term high-risk human papillomavirus persistence. CONCLUSIONS: The findings showed no firm evidence for any association between serum vitamin D level and cervicovaginal human papillomavirus infection, although the possible association could not be discarded. Further investigations are needed to reach sound evidence.

Perspectives of adolescents regarding the sexual and reproductive health self-care: a theory-based qualitative research.

OBJECTIVES: It is widely accepted that sexual and reproductive health in adolescents are among the health priorities in the world that affects health aspects and the formation of beliefs and socioeconomic development in the community. However, achieving goals related to sexual and reproductive health is not possible without awareness and participation of the adolescents. On the other hand, proper knowledge about such issues can prevent many problems in this regard. METHODS: This qualitative study was carried out for one month in schools of Alborz University of Medical Sciences using content analysis. Data were collected from semi-structured, individual and in-depth interviews with female students. In addition, data analysis was performed using guided qualitative content analysis (theory-based). RESULTS: Analysis of the data led to the extraction of 11 primary codes classified in six categories of protection motivation constructs (perceived sensitivity, perceived severity, response efficiency, response cost, self-efficacy, and internal rewards) and two additional categories (communications and social contexts). CONCLUSION: All interviewees found themselves exposed to sexually transmitted diseases and emphasized sexual self-care even though the majority of these individuals had inadequate self-efficacy.

Effect of education based on protection motivation theory on adolescents' reproductive health self-care: a randomized controlled trial.

BACKGROUND: Adolescents should be empowered to improve their reproductive and sexual health needs. The present study aimed to investigate effects of protection motivation theory-based education on student girls' reproductive and sexual health self-care. METHODS: This randomized controlled trial was conducted in parallel on 90 female students living in dormitories of the Alborz University of Medical Sciences in Iran. The data collection lasted from January 2017 to May 2018. Convenience sampling was performed, and samples were put into intervention and control groups by block randomization. The intervention group received six educational sessions based on the protection motivation theory(PMT). The data collection tool of this research consisted of the protection motivation theory and reproductive health self-care questionnaires. RESULTS: There was no significant difference between control and intervention groups in demographic characteristics. The results of the repeated measures test indicated that the reproductive health self-care variable had a significant change (p = 0.000), and there was a significant difference between groups (p = 0.000). The total score of the Protection Motivation Theory Questionnaire was not changed over time (p = 0.54) and there was no significant difference between groups (p = 0.51) according to results of the repeated measures test. CONCLUSION: According to effects of an educational intervention based on the protection motivation theory, it is suggested to utilize this model as an educational framework for adolescents' reproductive and sexual health by healthcare providers, schools and universities as well as holding periodic courses educating adolescents within short-term intervals in order to achieve the higher sustainability of the educational results.