Knowledge of Human Papillomavirus Infections and Level of Vaccination among Women Attending Antenatal in Tertiary Hospitals in Rivers State

Abstract

The study is aimed at ascertaining the knowledge of human papillomavirus infections and the level of vaccination among women attending antenatal in tertiary hospitals in Rivers State. A descriptive survey design was adopted for the study. The study used a simple random sampling technique to select 100 women attending antenatal from a population of 400 pregnant women in tertiary hospitals in Rivers State. A self-structured validated instrument was used to collect data. Statistical Package for Social Science version 22.0 was used to analyze the data. Descriptive statistics was used as data analysis method. The study revealed that the level of knowledge of HPV infections and vaccination among pregnant women was low. The study revealed that the level of HPV vaccination among pregnant women was also low. This could be attributed to a lack of enough sensitization, fear of the unknown, non-availability/cost of the vaccines, religion among others. The study, therefore, recommends that there is an urgent need to improve awareness and enlightenment on HPV infections and vaccination among women as it’s a very important reproductive health issue.