Impact of indirect education on knowledge and perception on cervical cancer and its prevention among the parents of adolescent girls: an interventional school-based study

Background: India has almost 225 million adolescent girls and they seem to be at a disadvantage, both economically and by their lack of knowledge on human papilloma virus (HPV) vaccine, when compared to adolescent girls of other Asian countries.

Aim: To assess the prevalence of HPV vaccination and to identify the impact of education in improving the knowledge and perception about the HPV infection and vaccination among the parents of adolescent girls.

Methodology: The prospective interventional study was conducted in four schools within a South Indian City, Mysuru. The informed consent form and the questionnaire were sent home with the identified adolescent girls during the pre-interventional phase. Educational sessions were conducted for the students in their school and an education leaflet was distributed to their parents. Three weeks later, questionnaires were re-administered to the parents via the enrolled girls and their responses were collected.

Results: The prevalence of HPV vaccination in the study population was 4.4%. There was a statistically significant improvement in knowledge in the post-interventional phase of the study (p = 0.001), but could not identify a significant change in their perception (p = 0.479). Parents belonging to the socioeconomic class of upper middle and upper lower showed better improvement at the end of the study, with a percentage improvement of 58.93% and 48.44%, respectively.

Conclusion: The study proved that the healt care professional can target school children to communicate effectively to their parents on the importance of HPV vaccine as the study clearly observed a positive behavioral change among the study population.