Level of Knowledge about Human Papillomavirus Infection among Women of Kashan City, Iran

Aims A few studies concentrate on the level of knowledge of HPV. This study was conducted to evaluate the level of knowledge about HPV, its risk factors, and its relation with cervical cancer in women of Kashan City, Iran. Instrument Methods This descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted in January 2015 in the population of the women of Kashan City, Iran, and 200 persons were selected by simple sampling method. The level of knowledge about HPV and cervical cancer were measured using a questionnaire with 10 questions about knowledge. The data was analyzed in SPSS 16 software by Chi-square, Exact Fisher and Kruskal-Wallis tests. Findings Most of the participants (152 persons; 76%) had “weak, 26 participants (13%) had “moderate” and only 22 participants (11%) had “strong” level of knowledge about HPV. There were significant differences between the level of knowledge according to educational level (p=0.014) and professional status (p 0.001) but there were no differences according to marital status (p=0.9) and age (p 0.05). In all the questions, the most frequent answer was “don’t know”. The participants had some knowledge about “HPV causing cervical cancer” (34.5%), “HPV causing genital warts” (38%), “sexually transmission of HPV” (37.5%) and “increased risk of getting HPV by extramarital sexual affairs” (43.5%) Conclusion The level of knowledge about HPV, genital warts, and ways of infection transmission and its preventions in women of Kashan City, Iran, is insufficient.