Determinants of Human Papilloma Virus Vaccine Uptake Among Adolescent Girls at Selected Secondary Schools in Kibaha Town Council

Abstract

Abstract Background: Human papilloma virus infection rates among girls aged 13 to 19 years are as high as 83%. Cervical cancer kills one woman every two minutes and affects approximately 570,000 women worldwide.This study investigated determinants of human papilloma virus vaccine uptake among adolescent girls at selected secondary schools in the Kibaha Town Council. Methods: The research employed a mixed-method research approach. The study's sample size was 385 respondents, including 344 adolescent girl students, 40 parents/guardians, and 1 district immunization and vaccine officer. For quantitative data, the researcher collected the data and inserted them into Microsoft Excel for data sorting and cleaning. The cleaned data were then exported to SPSS version 26 to calculate descriptive data wich were represented in frequency and percentage. For qualitative data, the researcher used thematic content analysis. Results: The results showed that only 47.92% of the total adolescent girls completed both doses of the HPV vaccine, while 52.08% of respondents did not receive the second dose. 66% of the respondents felt comfortable discussing the HPV vaccine. Most respondents (89.6%) believed that no negative health side effects were associated with HPV vaccine uptake. Conclusion: There is a notable gap between awareness and action regarding HPV vaccination. The majority of respondents are aware of the importance of HPV vaccination in preventing cervical cancer, which indicates strong support for using the HPV vaccine. However, this positive attitude does not seem to translate into a high rate of girls actually completing both doses of the vaccine.