The relationship between parents' health literacy levels and their approaches to human papillomavirüs vaccination

İntroduction and purpose: HPV is common in women and men, and it can cause seriousdiseases in both genders. The role of HPV vaccines, which is the primary protection method, is extremely important in preventing diseases caused by HPV. The most suitable ages for these vaccines to be given are adolescence and childhood. Parental consent is required for HPV vaccinations to children of this age. Health literacy is effective in people's access to, understanding and application of information on health-related issues. Vaccines play an important role in these health-related issues. The aim of this study is to evaluate the relationship between parents' knowledge, awareness about HPV, and parents' knowledge, awareness, desire, attitudes and behaviors about HPV vaccine, and parents' health literacy. Material and method: 418 parents with children aged 0-18 who applied to Bolu Abant İzzet Baysal Training and Research Hospital between March 2022 and June 2022 and volunteered to participate in the study were included in the study. Visual, speech, hearing impairment, mental retardation, being under the age of 18 and being childless are among the exclusion criteria. Questionnaire includingSociodemographic information, information questions about HPV and HPV vaccine compiled by the researcher from the literature, whether he had heard of HPV before, from whom he received information about HPV vaccine, whether HPV vaccine was recommended by family physicians, questions including attitudes, behaviors and wishes about HPV vaccine and the European Health Literacy Turkish version of the literacy scalewas filled out by the participants. Results: There were 178 male participants and 246 female participants in the study. The mean age of the participants was 38.08±6.90, the minimum age was 22, and the maximum age was 60. There was no significant difference between the level of health literacy between women and men (p>0.05). Health literacy of older participants was significantly lower (p<0.05). In the study, 86 participants (20.6%) had insufficient health literacy, 186 (44.5%) had problem-limited health literacy, 108 (25.8%) had adequate health literacy, and 38 (9.1%) He had an excellent level of health literacy.The health literacy levels of the participants who had heard of HPV before were significantly higher(p<0.05). The health literacy levels of the participants who did not know the HPV information questions were significantly lower (p<0.05). The health literacy levels of the participants who did not receive information about the HPV vaccine were significantly lower (p<0.05).The health literacy levels of the participants who did not know the other questions except for one of the information questions about the HPV vaccine were significantly lower (p<0.05).There was no significant difference between health literacy levels of the participants who had their children vaccinated with HPV compared to those who did not (p>0.05). There was no significant difference between the answers given to the participants to consider having their children vaccinated against HPV and their health literacy levels (p>0.05). The health literacy levels of the participants who did not believe that the HPV vaccine was effective were significantly lower (p<0.05). The health literacy levels of the participants who believed that the HPV vaccine was safe were significantly higher (p<0.05). Conclusion:Participants with high HPV and HPV vaccine awareness and knowledge about HPV and HPV vaccine had higher health literacy levels. There was no difference between the HPV vaccination behaviors for the children of the participants and the HPV vaccination request and health literacy levels. Participants with a positive attitude towards the HPV vaccine had higher health literacy levels. KEYWORDS: Parents, HPV, HPV vaccine, health literacy