DETERMINATION OF THE KNOWLEDGE AND OPINIONS OF MIDWIFERY STUDENTS ABOUT CERVICAL CANCER AND HUMAN PAPILLOMA VIRUS VACCINATION

Objective: The aim of this study was to determine knowledge and opinions of midwifery students about cervical cancer and human papilloma virus vaccination. Methods: This descriptive study was carried out at the School of Health of State University between February 09, and 20, 2015. The universe of the study consisted of 349 midwifery students. It was tried to reach the universe without going to the sample selection in the research and 258 (73.9%) students were taken. "Participant Information Form" and the "Cervical Cancer and Human Papilloma Virus Vaccination the Knowledge and Beliefs Form" developed by the researchers by reviewing the related literature were used for data collection. Study data were analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences SPSS 18.0 software package. Data were expressed as “mean±standard deviation”, number and percentage where appropriate. Results: The average age of the students in the study was 20.41 ± 1.57 (min 17- max 26). It was found out that %9.3 of the students are medical vocational high school graduates, that 10.9% had no medical insurance and that 65.1% of the student’s mothers, 55.0% of the student’s fathers were primary school graduates. It was determined that 8.5% of the students (n=21) had sexual intercourse and 33% of these students had unprotected sexual intercourse. Students figured out that 71.2% had heard of pap smear test, 85.9% had known which pap smear test is a cervical cancer screening test, 54.3% had known that HPV is the virus causes cervical cancer, 44.9% had known that the pap smear test should be done once a year and 69.4% had known that HPV was a sexually transmitted disease. Also, the students reported that 71.4% had heard HPV, 78.4% would recommend it to their relatives and 77.3% would like to have it if they had a child. The students of 85.2% recommended the HPV vaccine should be added to the national vaccination schedule. Conclusion: In this study were obtained that the majority of students had heard pap smear test and HPV, had known pap smear test is a cervical cancer screening test, HPV is a virus causing cervical cancer and a sexually transmitted disease, would like to have it if they had a child, would recommend it to their relatives and added to the national vaccination schedule. These results are thought to contribute to the planning of training programs for cervical cancer and HPV students