Assessment of knowledge about human papillomavirus vaccination among primary school girls in Arba Minch town, South Ethiopia, 2020. An institution-based cross-sectional study

Abstract Introduction: Cervical cancer is the second leading cause of cancer-related mortality among females in Ethiopia. The knowledge regarding human papillomavirus vaccination and its acceptability among adolescent girls affects the human papillomavirus vaccine uptake, however, the status of knowledge of the human papillomavirus vaccination among adolescent girls in Ethiopia, particularly in this study area is not well known. Therefore, this study aimed to determine the knowledge of human papillomavirus vaccination and associated factors among primary school girls in Arba Minch town, South Ethiopia, 2020. Methods: A school-based cross-sectional study in which 516 school girls participated was conducted on January 24, 2020. The study participants were selected by a simple random sampling technique. A pre-tested and self-administered questionnaire was used to collect the data. Data was entered to Epi_data version 4.6 and exported to SPSS Version 23 for analysis. The logistic regression model was used to identify the statistically significant variables for knowledge of the human papillomavirus vaccination. Results: The overall knowledge level of the study participants in this study was 71.7%. Their main information source was social media 41.74% followed by health care workers 29.69%. Conclusions: Nearly three-fourths of the study participants were knowledgeable about human papillomavirus vaccination. The knowledge about the human papillomavirus vaccination shows a positive association with age, education level, access to information sources, and parents9 educational status. Keywords: Arbaminch town; cervical cancer; Ethiopia; human papillomavirus vaccine; girls; knowledge; schools