Adolescent Girls and their Mothers’ Knowledge and Opinions about Human Papilloma Virus Vaccine

This descriptive study was performed between 1 December and 1 March 2010 to reveal what adolescent girls and their mothers know and think about Human Papilloma Virus vaccine. It included 580 female students studying at eight high schools in a city located in the western part of Turkey and 480 mothers. Data were collected with two questionnaires, of which one was completed by the female students and the other was completed by their mothers. Obtained data were analyzed by using Statistical Package Program for Social Sciences 11.5 with descriptive statistics and Chi-square test. Thirty-five point six percent of the girls and 32.7% of the mothers did not know who should be injected HPV vaccine. The item about HPV vaccine which was most frequently marked correctly by the students (34,1%) and the mothers (31,5%) was “HPV vaccine was protective against cancer”. Seventy-five point five percent of the students and 70% of the mothers believed that the vaccine is not harmful. Forty-one point five percent of the mothers noted that they wanted to have their daughters vaccinated against HPV. The mean age of the girls was 15.62±0.61 years and the mean age of the mothers was 40,59±4,8 years. Eighty-eight point one percent of the girls wanted to have HPV vaccine to prevent cervix cancer, but 48,8% of the girls did not want to have the vaccine since they did not have sufficient information about the vaccine. Eighty-one point four percent of the mothers wanted to have their daughters vaccinated against HPV since they considered the vaccine as protective against cervix cancer. Forty-one point nine percent of the mother did not want to do so since they did not have sufficient information about the vaccine. The study showed that both the girls and their mothers were in favor of HPV vaccine, but that they needed information about the vaccine.