A study to assess the knowledge of human papillomavirus vaccine among school girls of Bhopal city

Background: Objectives of the study were to assess the existing knowledge of the human Papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine and the impact of educational intervention among school girls. Methods: This study is a Quasi-experimental study conducted on 150 girls of 9th to 12th standard studying in a school. A pre-test questionnaire was used to assess the baseline knowledge, following which an interactive educational session was held and a post-test questionnaire was used to collect data. The impact of the intervention was analysed using a paired t-test. A Chi-square test was used to assess the willingness towards HPV vaccine pre and post-test. Results: Lack of awareness (96.67%) was the primary barrier to knowledge regarding HPV vaccine. There was a significant increase in the mean knowledge scores from the pre-test (2.4±0.5) to the post-test (18.66±1.83) and the difference was statistically highly significant (p<0.0001). Conclusions: After the educational intervention, the mean knowledge of the study participants improved drastically with the majority of them showing willingness regarding the HPV vaccination.