Examination the Relationship Between Parents' Attitudes and Beliefs about Human Papilloma Virus Vaccine and Health Literacy

Abstract

Objective: This study was conducted to examine the relationship between the attitudes and beliefs of parents about Human papillomavirus vaccine and their health literacy. Methods: The sample of this descriptive and cross-sectional study consisted of 599 parents who volunteered to participate in the study and had access to our survey sent from the parent whatsapp groups of a secondary school located in rural areas in the central region of Türkiye. A Descriptive Information Form, the Carolina HPV Vaccination Attitudes and Beliefs Scale, and Turkey Health Literacy Scale-32 were used to collect research data. Results: The mean age of 56.8% (n: 340) of the parents was ≥ 45 years, 68.4% (n:410) were women, 49.6% (n:297) had primary education, 92.0% (n:551) did not have a history of cervical cancer in their mothers, 89.8% (n:538) did not have a history of cervical cancer in their family, 92.2% (n:552) had not had their children vaccinated against HPV. Also, 28.4% (n= 170) of the participants had received information about the HPV vaccine from health personnel. It was determined that the risk of not having the child vaccinated was 1.320 times higher in participants with an equal income and expenses than in those whose income was higher than their expenses and that it was 4.514 times higher in participants with no family history of cervical cancer than in those with a history of this cancer type. Conclusion: In the study, it was concluded that those whose income was equal to their expenses and those who did not have a family history of cervical cancer had a higher risk of not having their child vaccinated and that the high level of health literacy of the parents positively affected their attitudes and beliefs about human papilloma virus vaccination. As the parents' level of health literacy increased, the rate of getting their children vaccinated against HPV increased significantly. Considering this situation, it is thought that knowledge of vaccines can be increased, attitudes and beliefs can be improved, and vaccination rates can be increased by targeting health literacy in the interventions to be implemented.