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
. 2023 Oct 11;18(10):e0291643.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0291643. eCollection 2023.

Awareness and knowledge of physicians and residents on the non-sexual routes of human papilloma virus (HPV) infection and their perspectives on anti-HPV vaccination in Jordan

Arwa Qaqish  1   2 , Nour Abdo  3 , Manal Mohammad Abbas  4 , Nour Saadeh  5 , Mohammad Alkhateeb  6 , Renad Msameh  7 , Shahd Tarawneh  6 , Mona Al-Masri  1
Affiliations

Awareness and knowledge of physicians and residents on the non-sexual routes of human papilloma virus (HPV) infection and their perspectives on anti-HPV vaccination in Jordan

Arwa Qaqish et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

Background and objectives: Although penetrative sex is the most common route of HPV infection, there is strong evidence of non-sexual modes of transmission. As the first of its kind, this study aimed to investigate the knowledge and awareness of Jordanian physicians on such routes.

Methods: A questionnaire was conducted among a national Jordanian sample of physicians from Jordanian health sectors. The survey included questions assessing participants' knowledge on HPV, non-sexual routes of infection and HPV vaccines. Physicians' attitudes towards HPV screening and vaccination were covered. Statistical analysis was carried out using SAS 9.4, ANOVA, post-hoc Tukey-Honest test and Kruskal-Wallis test. All significant differences were set at α = 0.05.

Results: A total of 412 participants completed the survey. Physicians showed a huge deficit in knowledge on nonsexual routes of HPV transmission. They agreed that the most and least common routes of non-sexual transmission are skin to mucosa (64%) and contaminated water (15%), respectively. Females showed significantly better knowledge in all aspects of HPV transmission and vaccination (p<0.0001) and more positive attitudes towards HPV screening and vaccination compared to males (p = 0.03). Age group ≤ 25 and academic physicians demonstrated higher knowledge on HPV vaccines compared to their counterparts in non-academic places (p = 0.002). Specialty and experience seemed to have no impact on knowledge or attitudes of participants. Higher knowledge physicians had more positive attitude towards vaccination and screening compared to lower knowledge fellows (p<0.001).

Conclusions: The noteworthy findings of this study is the extremely low level of knowledge on non-sexual routes of HPV infection among Jordanian physicians. Increasing the level of awareness of physicians and healthcare workers on these routes and their association with cervical and other cancers through university curricula and other reliable sources is strongly recommended.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1. The prior knowledge of the nonsexual routes of HPV transmission among the study participants.
Fig 2
Fig 2. Reasons for not taking the vaccine.
Fig 3
Fig 3. Reasons for not recommending the vaccine to the patients.
Fig 4
Fig 4. Correlation between total knowledge scores and attitude towards HPV vaccination and screening.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Dunne E.F. and Park I.U., HPV and HPV-associated diseases. Infect Dis Clin North Am, 2013. 27(4): p. 765–78. doi: 10.1016/j.idc.2013.09.001 - DOI - PubMed
    1. de Martel C., et al.., Worldwide burden of cancer attributable to HPV by site, country and HPV type. Int J Cancer, 2017. 141(4): p. 664–670. doi: 10.1002/ijc.30716 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Crosbie E.J., et al.., Human papillomavirus and cervical cancer. Lancet, 2013. 382(9895): p. 889–99. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(13)60022-7 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Graham S.V., The human papillomavirus replication cycle, and its links to cancer progression: a comprehensive review. Clin Sci (Lond), 2017. 131(17): p. 2201–2221. doi: 10.1042/CS20160786 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Rosales R. and Rosales C., Immune therapy for human papillomaviruses-related cancers. World J Clin Oncol, 2014. 5(5): p. 1002–19. doi: 10.5306/wjco.v5.i5.1002 - DOI - PMC - PubMed

Substances