Department of Medical Education, Curriculum Development and Research Unit, College of Medicine, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Eur Rev Med Pharmacol Sci. 2022 May;26(10):3735-3744. doi: 10.26355/eurrev_202205_28870.
Cervical cancer is one of the most common cancers in women. Infection with high-risk human papillomavirus (HPV) genotypes is responsible for most cervical cancer cases. This study aimed to assess the knowledge of undergraduate medical and non-medical students about cervical cancer and HPV vaccines.
A cross-sectional questionnaire-based survey was distributed to 172 students in the final 2 years of an undergraduate program at the College of Medicine and the College of Business and Art at the King Saud University.
Thirty-one and 83 students (36% and 96.5%, respectively) in the non-medical and medical cohorts, respectively, answered that cervical cancer is preventable (p < 0.001). Further, there was a significant difference in the two cohorts regarding their responses to the etiology of cervical cancer (p < 0.001). Forty-five of the medical students answered correctly that the vaccine should be administered to boys and girls alike (52.3%), whereas only 19 (22.1%) non-medical students gave this answer. Moreover, 52 of the medical students (60.5%) expressed willingness to take the vaccine, whereas only 23 (26.7%) of the non-medical students were willing to receive the vaccination. The most common primary source of knowledge of the medical students was medical courses (96.5%), whereas for non-medical students was social media (66.28%). Vaccine availability was the commonest obstacle preventing medical students from receiving the vaccine, whereas that of non-medical students was inadequate information.
Medical students' knowledge about cervical cancer and vaccination was more accurate than that of non-medical students. We expect that the public will have an even lower level of knowledge. We recommend including necessary information about the vaccine in schools, colleges, and community education programs.
宫颈癌是女性最常见的癌症之一。高危型人乳头瘤病毒（HPV）基因型感染是大多数宫颈癌病例的原因。本研究旨在评估医学生和非医学生对宫颈癌和 HPV 疫苗的认识。
在沙特国王大学医学院和商学院及艺术学院的最后两年课程中，向 172 名学生发放了基于问卷调查的横断面研究。
非医学组和医学组分别有 31 名（36%）和 83 名（96.5%）学生回答宫颈癌是可预防的（p<0.001）。此外，两组学生对宫颈癌病因的回答存在显著差异（p<0.001）。45 名医学生正确回答疫苗应同时接种给男孩和女孩（52.3%），而非医学生中只有 19 名（22.1%）学生回答正确。此外，52 名医学生（60.5%）表示愿意接种疫苗，而非医学生中只有 23 名（26.7%）愿意接种。医学生获取知识的主要来源是医学课程（96.5%），而非医学生则是社交媒体（66.28%）。疫苗可获得性是医学生接种疫苗的最大障碍，而非医学生则是缺乏信息。
医学生对宫颈癌和疫苗接种的知识比非医学生更准确。我们预计公众的知识水平会更低。我们建议在学校、学院和社区教育计划中纳入有关疫苗的必要信息。
