Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Randomized Controlled Trial
. 2013 Jun 26:13:611.
doi: 10.1186/1471-2458-13-611.

Increasing girls' knowledge about human papillomavirus vaccination with a pre-test and a national leaflet: a quasi-experimental study

Robine Hofman  1 , Puck A W H Schiffers, Jan Hendrik Richardus, Hein Raat, Inge M C M de Kok, Marjolein van Ballegooijen, Ida J Korfage
Affiliations
Randomized Controlled Trial

Increasing girls' knowledge about human papillomavirus vaccination with a pre-test and a national leaflet: a quasi-experimental study

Robine Hofman et al. BMC Public Health. .

Abstract

Background: Adolescent girls are at an age to be involved in the decision about HPV vaccination uptake and therefore need adequate information about the vaccination. This study assesses to what extent reading an official information leaflet about HPV contributes to girls' knowledge levels, and to what extent an increase in knowledge is boosted by a pre-test measurement.

Methods: Participants (girls aged 11-14 years) were systematically allocated to group A that completed a pre-test measurement (12 true/false statements) or to group B that did not complete it. Subsequently, both groups read the HPV leaflet and completed the post-test measurement.

Results: The response rate was 237/287 (83%). Pre-test scores in group A (M = 3.6, SD = 1.81, p < 0.001) were lower than post-test mean knowledge scores (0-10) in group B (M = 4.6, SD = 2.05). Post-test knowledge scores in group A were higher than those in group B [6.2 (SD = 2.06) versus 4.6 (SD = 2.05), p < 0.001]. In the post-test measurement, about a third of both groups knew that vaccinations do not give 100% protection against cervical cancer and that the duration of protection is unknown.

Conclusions: Reading the information leaflet had a positive effect on knowledge, even more so when boosted by a pre-test measurement. However, knowledge on the degree and duration of protection against cervical cancer remained limited. Focusing girls' attention on important aspects before they start reading the leaflet (e.g. by including a quiz on the first page) may serve to raise their awareness of these aspects.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Study design in answering the two research questions.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Percentage of correct answers to the statements made by group A and B.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Kollar LM, Kahn JA. Education about human papillomavirus and human papillomavirus vaccines in adolescents. Adolescent and Pediatric Gynecology. 2008;20:479–483. - PubMed
    1. Baseman JG, Koutsky LA. The epidemiology of human papillomavirus infections. J Clin Virol. 2005;32(Suppl 1):S16–S24. - PubMed
    1. Koutsky L. Epidemiology of genital human papillomavirus infection. Am J Med. 1997;102:3–8. - PubMed
    1. Moscicki AB, Shiboski S, Broering J, Powell K, Clayton L, Jay N. et al.The natural history of human papillomavirus infection as measured by repeated DNA testing in adolescent and young women. J Pediatr. 1998;132:277–284. doi: 10.1016/S0022-3476(98)70445-7. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Franco EL, Villa LL, Sobrinho JP, Prado JM, Rousseau MC, Desy M. et al.Epidemiology of acquisition and clearance of cervical human papillomavirus infection in women from a high-risk area for cervical cancer. J Infect Dis. 1999;180:1415–1423. doi: 10.1086/315086. - DOI - PubMed

Publication types

Substances