Cognitive Situation Of Human Papillomavirus Infection-related Knowledge And Its Intervention Research Among Female Workers In Hengyang City

Objectives: To provide the reference basis for the health education of prevention against HPV infection and cervical cancer among female workers in the future, the current cognitive level of knowledge about HPV infection and its influent factors among female workers in Hengyang City were investigated, the intervention mode and its effect on HPV infection-related knowledge were studied. Methods: Based on “Knowledge, Attitude, Behaviors(KAP)” theory and the director’s previous research, “Questionnaires of the knowledge of Human papillomavirus(HPV) infections” for female workers was prepared. The questionnaires included general demographical characteristics, knowledge of HPV infection and HPV vaccine, attitudes or belief of HPV infections and HPV vaccine, and behaviors of HPV infections. By the convenience sampling method, a total of 1,000 female workers, who had physical examination at a third-grade class-A hospital in Hengyang city, were as participants and asked to answer the questionnaires. There were 961 effective copies, which were used to analyze the current situation of knowledge about HPV infection and HPV vaccine and its influent factors among female workers by building the database through Epi-data 3.1 and statistics. A total of 220 female workers were randomly divided into the intervention group(n=100) and the control group(n=120). Except of the conventional health education given for two groups, the intervention group was given the special health education about knowledge of HPV infection for 3 months. Then the effects of KAP intervention of HPV infection in the intervention group were assessed by comparing before and after the intervention between the control group and the intervention group. The SPSS 18.0 was utilized to analyze the data. The statistical methods included the descriptive statistics analysis, analysis of variance, stepwise regression analysis and etc.Results:(1) Of 961 female workers, there were 231 female workers(24%) who had ever heard of HPV, and 84 female workers(8.7%) who had ever heard of HPV vaccine. Among 231 female workers, the total average scores of KAP of HPV infection were 68.30±11.44, their average scores of knowledge were 24.84±5.06, the average scores of attitude were 27.98±7.39, the total average scores of behaviors were 16.18±6.40.(2) The older the female workers were, the lower their scores of knowledge about HPV infection were and the higher their scores of behaviors were. The scores of attitude of the female workers whose age ranged 41-50 years were the highest. There were statistical significance among the different age groups(P<0.01). The scores of HPV knowledge of the female workers who lived in the urban area were higher than those who lived in the rural regions, but there was not statistical significance(P>0.05); the scores of attitude of the former were obviously lower than the latter(P<0.01), however. The higher of the education level and family income of the female workers had, the higher their total scores of KAP and every dimension were, the differences were statistically significant(P<0.05).(3) Before the intervention, there were no significant difference for the demographic data and the scores of KAP of HPV infections between the intervention group and the control group(P>0.05). After the intervention, the total scores and the scores of each dimension of KAP of female workers in the control group were not statistically different comparing to those before the intervention(P>0.05); the total scores and the scores of each dimension of KAP of female workers in the intervention group were higher than those before the intervention(P<0.05); their scores in the intervention group were obviously higher than those in the control group(P<0.05).Conclusions:(1) Awareness rate of HPV and HPV vaccine among the female workers in Hengyang city were lower. Their KAP of HPV infection were at a lower level.(2) Age, family residence, education level, family incomes were the main influent factors for KAP of HPV infections among female workers in Hengyang city.(3) It could promote the female workers’ cognitive level about HPV infections and HPV vaccine, and improve their behavior after they were given by special health education about HPV infections.