PARENTS' KNOWLEDGE AND WILLINGNESS TO VACCINATE THEIR DAUGHTERS AGAINST HUMAN PAPILLOMAVIRUS AND THEIR ASSOCIATED FACTORS IN ALLE SPECIAL WEREDA, SOUTHERN ETHIOPIA 2023. MIXED STUDY

Abstract

Introduction: Cervical cancer is the most deadly cancer worldwide. Although human papillomavirus vaccination is the primary prevention mechanism there was low awareness, uptake, and willingness among parents primarily in developing nations. Therefore assessing parents’ knowledge and willingness is necessary. Objective: This study aims to assess knowledge, willingness, and associated factors of the human papillomavirus vaccination parents of daughters aged 9-14 years, in Alle special Wereda, Southern Ethiopia, 2023. Materials and methods: A community-based cross-sectional study triangulated with the qualitative inquiry was employed among 418 parents in Alle Special Wereda, southern Ethiopia from April to May 2023. The data collected by interview were entered into Epi data 4.6 and exported to SPSS version 25 for analysis. Logistic regression analysis was employed to identify factors associated with human papillomavirus vaccine knowledge and willingness and the statistical significance of the association was asserted at a P-value of < 0.05. Manual thematic analysis was used to analyze qualitative findings. Result: Of the total participants in the study, 29.7% and 40.2% have good knowledge about and willingness for the human papillomavirus vaccination respectively. Educational status (AOR=0.755, 95%CI (0.150-0.3805), heard human papillomavirus vaccine (AOR=0.254, 95%CI (0.065-0.985), fear of sexually transmitted infections (AOR=0.194, 95%CI (0.049-0.774), and attitude (AOR=0.071, 95%CI (0.0150-0.338) were significantly associated with knowledge. knowledge (AOR=0.112, 95%CI (0.035-0.362), attitude (AOR=0.260, 95%CI (0.068-0.987), and readiness (AOR=0.169, 95%CI (0.056-0.509) were significantly associated with willingness of human papillomavirus vaccine. In addition, lack of trust, poor perception, fear of unknown side effects, and misunderstanding were identified as major factors by qualitative findings. Conclusion: Parents' knowledge and willingness to receive human papillomavirus vaccination was low. Knowledge was significantly associated with educational status, hearing human papillomavirus vaccine, fear of sexual infections, and attitude. Knowledge, attitude, and readiness were strongly associated with vaccination willingness. Therefore, to increase human papillomavirus vaccination, awareness, health education, and additional research are required.