Vaccination Coverage Against Human Papillomavirus in Female Students in Cyprus.

ABSTRACT

Background Human papillomavirus (HPV) has been associated with the development of several cancers and cardiovascular diseases in females. Nevertheless, there is still poor data on vaccination coverage against HPV in several countries, including Cyprus. The main target of the present research was to assess the vaccination status of female students in Cyprus. Methodology An online survey was conducted via a cloud-based short questionnaire on Google Forms. Students with a known email address were initially invited via email to complete the survey. The questionnaire was distributed to 340 students, aged 18-49 years old, who lived in Cyprus (60% response rate). Results The total vaccination coverage was 38.1%. The mean age of participants was 23.5 (±6.5) years. The major reason for non-vaccination was the belief that participants were not at risk of serious illness from HPV infection (22%), followed by the reported lack of time to get vaccinated (16%) and inertia (13%). The students who had information about the safety of HPV vaccines from electronic sources of information (television, websites, and blogs) had lower vaccination coverage compared to those who had received information from alternative sources (primary health centers, family doctors, or obstetricians) (relative risk (RR) = 1.923, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.9669-3.825; p = 0.033). No significant differences in vaccination rates between participants who were coming from schools of health sciences versus those from financial schools (RR = 1.082, 95% CI = 0.7574-1.544; p = 0.3348) were observed. Conclusions Public health policy interventions and education on HPV vaccines are effective ways to improve the awareness and acceptance rate of HPV vaccination among female students and improve the HPV vaccination coverage level in Cyprus.