Knowledge Regarding Vaccination against Cervical Cancer among Adolescents

The magnitude of the problem of non communicable diseases in our society is only partially reflected by statistics on mortality and morbidity. Cancer is one among the major killing disease in the beginning of the 20^th century, cancer is the 6^th cause of death in industrialized countries, and today it stands as second leading cause of death in the world. Many young adolescent girls in India, especially those in rural areas, have little or no education: nearly 13 percent of 10 to 14 year-old girls have never attended school, and more than 30 percent have less than five years of schooling. Cervical cancer is the second most common type of cancer in women. Cervical cancer usually develops very slowly. This precancerous condition can be detected by a Pap smear and is 100% treatable. Almost all cervical cancers are caused by human papilloma virus. Human papilloma virus is a common virus that is spread through sexual intercourse. A vaccine to prevent cervical cancer is now available. Annual pelvic examinations, including a pap smear, should start when a woman becomes sexually active, or by the age of 20 in a non-sexually active woman. Human papilloma virus vaccination is recommended with either vaccine for 12 and 17 year-old girls.

Statement of the problem:

A study to assess the knowledge on vaccination against cervical cancer among adolescent girls in selected high schools at Tumkur with a view to develop an Information booklet.

Objectives of the study:

* To assess the knowledge on vaccination against cervical cancer among the adolescent girls.

* To determine the association between the level of knowledge with selected socio demographic variable.

* To develop an information booklet on vaccination against cervical cancer.

Methodology:

The research approach adopted for the study was descriptive approach which was considered as an appropriate research for the present study. The conceptual frame work is based on modified general system theory developed by Ludwing Bertalanffy. Research design adopted for the study was descriptive design. The study was conducted in selected high schools. Systematic random sampling technique was used to select 200 adolescent girls. A self administered knowledge questionnaire was used for data collection. The reliability of the tool was established by splithalf test method by using Karl Pearson's product moment correlation formula method. The reliability of tool was found to be r =0.8711 which shows that the tool was reliable. Data gathered was analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics in terms of frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation, and chi-square test.

Results:

The results of the present study revealed that majority of adolescent girls 116(58%) were having inadequate knowledge, 79 (39.5%) of them were having moderately adequate knowledge and 5(2.5%) of them had adequate knowledge on vaccination against cervical cancer with Mean Response of sample on vaccination against cervical cancer is 19.85 with SD value of 5.109. The analysis was done to find out the association between the knowledge on vaccination against cervical cancer with selected Socio demographic variables such as age, religion, educational status of the mother, educational status of the father, occupation of the mother, occupation of the father, type of family, total income of the family, place of residence, family history of cervical cancer vaccination, previous exposure of knowledge on cervical cancer vaccination, opinion on cervical cancer. The variable such as educational status of mother, occupation of mother, total monthly income of the family , place of residence, opinion on cervical cancer were found to be significant at P<0.05 level. Variables such as age, religion, standard of education, educational status of father, occupation of father, type of family, family history of cervical cancer vaccination, previous exposure of information on vaccination against cervical cancer has significant association with level of knowledge on vaccination against cervical cancer at P<0.05 level.

Interpretation and conclusion:

The findings of the study revealed that adolescent girls had inadequate knowledge on vaccination against cervical cancer. Therefore the findings of the study strongly suggest that there is need for conducting study using SIM on importance of vaccination against cervical cancer among adolescent girls