Afonso Nelia M, Kavanagh Maurice J, Swanberg Stephanie M, Schulte Jeanne M, Wunderlich Tracy, Lucia Victoria C
Department of Biomedical Sciences, Oakland University William Beaumont School of Medicine, 2200 North Squirrel Rd., Rochester, MI, 48309, USA.
Clinical Skills Training & Simulation Center, Oakland University William Beaumont School of Medicine, 44300 Dequindre Rd., Sterling Heights, MI, 48314, USA.
BMC Public Health. 2017 Jan 6;17(1):35. doi: 10.1186/s12889-016-3969-x.
Human papillomavirus (HPV) is the most common sexually transmitted infection in the United States. It is also well established that HPV viruses are responsible for a variety of cancers. Little is known about the prevailing knowledge and attitudes toward the HPV vaccine in our future healthcare providers, a majority of whom were among the first in the target age group to receive the vaccine; the same vaccine that they will in turn be expected to recommend to their patients. The aims of this pilot study were to examine the HPV vaccination rate among medical students and determine their knowledge about HPV and attitudes toward vaccination.
To aid in the development of an HPV educational intervention, a needs assessment survey was administered to discover medical students' knowledge and attitudes toward the HPV vaccine. All medical students at a Midwestern US medical school were invited to complete the survey.
Two hundred fourteen of 390 medical students completed the survey with 44% having been previously vaccinated. Although 82% of all respondents believed they would recommend the vaccine to family and friends, only 40% felt knowledgeable about the vaccine and 40% felt comfortable counseling patients. More positive attitudes and better knowledge scores were found in fully vaccinated students compared to non-vaccinated students. Provider recommendation was strongly associated with HPV vaccination status.
This study revealed the unique perspectives of U.S. millennial medical students as the first group of future healthcare providers to have personally encountered the HPV vaccine. Overall, students' knowledge as well as their comfort level in counseling patients was lacking. This assessment has guided the development of targeted educational interventions to address knowledge gaps and prepare students to appropriately discuss the vaccine with patients and parents and help protect young people from life threatening cancers.
人乳头瘤病毒（HPV）是美国最常见的性传播感染。HPV病毒引发多种癌症这一点也已得到充分证实。对于我们未来的医疗服务提供者对HPV疫苗的普遍认知和态度，我们知之甚少，其中大多数人是目标年龄组中最早接种该疫苗的一批人；而他们日后也将被期望向患者推荐同一种疫苗。这项初步研究的目的是调查医学生的HPV疫苗接种率，并确定他们对HPV的了解以及对疫苗接种的态度。
为了帮助开展HPV教育干预措施，我们进行了一项需求评估调查，以了解医学生对HPV疫苗的知识和态度。美国中西部一所医学院的所有医学生都受邀完成该调查。
390名医学生中有214人完成了调查，其中44%之前接种过疫苗。尽管82%的受访者表示他们会向家人和朋友推荐该疫苗，但只有40%的人觉得自己对疫苗有所了解，40%的人觉得为患者提供咨询时得心应手。与未接种疫苗的学生相比，完全接种疫苗的学生态度更积极，知识得分更高。医疗服务提供者的推荐与HPV疫苗接种状况密切相关。
这项研究揭示了美国千禧一代医学生作为首批亲身接触过HPV疫苗的未来医疗服务提供者的独特观点。总体而言，学生们缺乏相关知识，在为患者提供咨询时也不够自信。这项评估为有针对性的教育干预措施的制定提供了指导，以填补知识空白，让学生做好准备，与患者及家长恰当地讨论疫苗，并帮助保护年轻人免受危及生命的癌症侵害。
