Effectiveness of Information Education Communication (IEC) Strategy on Knowledge Regarding Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) Vaccination Among Adolescent Girls

Background of the study: Worldwide, cervical cancer is the fourth most frequent cancer in women. Cervical cancer kills one Indian woman every eight minutes, making the disease one of the country’s most lethal cancers.1Seventy percentages of cervical cancers are known to be caused by Human papilloma virus (HPV) infection. One strategy to reduce the spread of HPV and thus prevent cervical cancer is to increase the number of individuals who get HPV vaccination.2 Due to the prevalence of HPV, health professionals recommend getting the vaccine prior to sexually be active; hence the target group for HPV vaccination is adolescent girls. So it is imperative for adolescent girls to be aware about the Human papilloma virus (HPV) vaccination.2 Objectives: The objective of the study was to assess the level of knowledge regarding Human papilloma virus (HPV) vaccination among adolescent girls, to evaluate the effectiveness of Information Education Communication (IEC) approach on knowledge regarding Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) vaccination among adolescent girls as measured by gain in post-test scores and to find out an association between pre-test knowledge scores of adolescent girls with their selected socio-demographic variables. Methodology: An evaluative study was conducted among 30 adolescent girls of P C Jabin PU Science College, Hubballi. Probability, simple random sampling technique was used to select the sample. The data was collected using structured knowledge questionnaire. The research design used for the study was pre-experimental, one group pre-test post-test design. Results: The study results revealed that, majority of subjects in pre-test 24(80%) had average knowledge, 5 (16%) had good knowledge and 1(4%) had poor knowledge. Whereas in post-test after Information education communication approach, all the subjects 30 (100%) had good knowledge and none of them had average and poor knowledge regarding HPV vaccination. There was a significant gain in knowledge i.e 43.01% after administration of IEC approach. With regards to statistical association, there was an association between occupation of subject’s father & occupation of subject’s mother with their pre-test knowledge scores. Conclusion: The study concluded that the Information education communication approach was effective in terms of gain in knowledge scores of the subjects regarding Human papilloma virus vaccination. Keywords: Cervical cancer, Human papilloma virus, Human papilloma virus vaccination, adolescent girls, knowledge, effectiveness, Information education communication approach.