Knowledge of Pregnant Adolescents about Human Papillomavirus

Descriptive study developed in the adolescent prenatal outpatient clinic of a tertiary hospital fromthe state of São Paulo, Brazil. Data were collected between June and December 2017 following approval from the ethics and research committee (CAAE: 1.887.892/2017). Pregnant adolescents, ≤18 years old, who attended the abovementioned outpatient section, composed the sample. Those diagnosed with a psychiatric disorder and those with hearing or cognitive disabilities were excluded. After acceptance to participate in the present study, the pregnant adolescents signed an Informed Consent Form. Regarding the statistical analysis, the chi-squared test and the Fisher exact test were used.

Results

Regarding the knowledge about HPV, 123 (80.92%) of the participants had already heard about the subject; for 77 (50.66%), their schools had been the source of the information; 101 (66.45%) did not know how they could be infected by the virus. Age variation did not influence their knowledge on how to prevent themselves from HPV (p = 0.2562). The variable vaccine is associated with HPV prevention (p < 0.0001).

Conclusion

The pregnant adolescents composing the sample have shown to have knowledge about HPV. However, they do not prevent themselves from it appropriately, given that little more than half of the sample was vaccinated, had not reported an understanding that the use of preservatives and vaccination are effective means of prevention, and did not correlate HPV with uterine cervical cancer.

Keywords:
adolescent; uterine cervical neoplasms; human papillomavirus

Variable	n	%
*Skin color^ IBGE (Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics).**
White	24	15.79
Black	52	34.21
Brown	76	50.00
Living with the partner
Yes	89	58.55
Stable relationship
Yes	132	86.84
Appropriate age^ Appropriate age = Adolescent with schooling in accordance with their age.**
Yes	126	84.87

Variable on HPV		n	%
“Ever heard about HPV?”	Yes	123	80.92
“Where did you hear about HPV?”	School	77	50.66
	Home	06	3.95
	Health center	34	22.37
	Social network	18	11.84
	Friends	11	7.24
“Does HPV have any relationship with uterine cervical cancer?”	No	99	65.13
“Did you how the HPV was transmitted?”	NoSexual relation	10148	66.4531.58
	Saliva	04	2.63
	Blood	06	3.95
“How do you prevent from HPV?”	Preservative^* Preservative usage: only masculine was mentioned.	49	32.24
“How do you prevent from HPV?”	Vaccination	24	15.79
“Do you know what is the function of oncological cytology?”	No	97	63.82
“Did you get the HPV vaccine?”	No	85	55.92

Variable	Knew how to prevent from HPV				p-value^* p-value obtained from the chi-squared test.
	No		Yes
	n	%	n	%
Race					0.6169
White	14	58.33	10	41.67
Black	36	69.23	16	30.77
Brown	48	63.16	28	36.84
Schooling					0.1903
No studies to incomplete high school	40	58.82	28	41.18
Complete high school to incomplete higher education	58	69.05	26	30.95
Appropriate age					0.1809
No	12	52.17	11	47.83
Yes	86	66.67	43	33.33
Preservative					< 0.0001
No	98	95.15	5	4.85
Yes	0	0.00	49	100.00
Vaccine					< 0.0001
No	97	75.78	31	24.22
Yes	1	4.17	23	95.83

Federação Brasileira das Sociedades de Ginecologia e Obstetrícia Av. Brigadeiro Luís Antônio, 3421, sala 903 - Jardim Paulista, 01401-001 São Paulo SP - Brasil, Tel. (55 11) 5573-4919 - Rio de Janeiro - RJ - Brazil
E-mail: editorial.office@febrasgo.org.br

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[1] Address for correspondence
Erika Zambrano Tanaka, School of Nursing, Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Rua Tessália Vieira de Camargo, 13083-887, 126, Campinas, SP, Brazil (e-mail: eztanaka@unicamp.br).