A study on the Impact of Cancer Awareness Program in improving the awareness and vaccine uptake for Cervical cancer in Nursing students of a tertiary care hospital of Bhubaneswar

Despite the evidence of Human Papilloma Virus vaccination, as an effective mode of primary prevention of cervical cancer, the uptake of vaccine is very less. There being a lot of gaps regarding knowledge about HPV vaccination, its safety, efficacy and availability, the study was done to assess the effect of awareness programs in the acceptance of safe practices for prevention of cervical cancer. Using a longitudinal study design, a study was conducted among 152 B.Sc. nursing students of a tertiary care teaching hospital; using a researcher-made questionnaire. An awareness session was organized to educate them on cervical cancer prevention. The same questionnaire was re-administered as a post- test after a period of one month. Data collected was entered into Microsoft excel spreadsheet; analyzed using EpiInfo software. Data was represented using appropriate statistical tests; taking a p-value of < 0.05 as statistically significant. The mean-age of the study participants was 20.92 + 1.68 years. As few as15.1% knew that “HPV infection is generally asymptomatic”, pre-awareness session. There was considerable improvement in the knowledge regarding the symptoms of carcinoma of cervix post the awareness drive, results were was also statistically significant (p< 0.001). Similarly, their knowledge regarding various risk factors of carcinoma cervix, PAP smear test as a screening tool, also had a marked improvement, post the awareness session. 52.6% were hesitant to take the HPV vaccine pre-awareness session, whereas 73.6% agreed for the same after the awareness program. Although prior to the awareness drive their knowledge about cervical cancer was poor, but there was a significant improvement in their level of knowledge after it. Thus awareness programs can be conducted to inculcate safe lifestyle practices. For wider dissemination, more numbers of awareness drives and at frequent intervals should be done.