Teenage-girls and their mother?s knowledge and opinions about vaccine of HPV

This defining research includes 580 female students from 8 high schools and 480 mothers located in Balıkesir city center and was performed between December 01 2009 and March 01 2010.The research data was collected by the application of surveys to the students under the control of the researcher and by the transportation of the same surveys to the mothers via the students. The data analyze was performed by the pocket program (Statistical Package for Social Science) SPSS 11.5. The research data was assessed by determining statistics and ki-square test.The mean age of the students included in the research was 15.62 ± 0.617, the mean age of the mothers was 40,59±4,8. It was identified that 41.9% of the female students heard about the HPV infection, 34.14% knew that the vaccine protects against cancer, 4.59% knew it protects from the genital varts, 5.6% knew that it is expensive, 92.1% didn't know that social security constitution doesn't pay for the vaccine. It was determined that 39.2% of the mothers heard about the HPV infection, 31.57% knew that the vaccine protects against cancer, 7% knew it protects from the genital varts, 8% knew that it is expensive, 85% didn't know that social security constitution doesn't pay for the vaccine. It was determined that 69.4% of the mothers think that the vaccine is harmless, 63.5%percent of them evaluated the HPV vaccine as useful. 40.5% of the students stated that they want to be vaccined. It was determined that 58.5% of the mothers wanted their doughers to be vaccined. It was determined that 81.4% of the mothers didn't want their doughters to be vaiccined to be protected from cervix cancer, 42% of them didn't want their doughters to be vaccined because they didn't know anything about the vaccine. 43.6% percent of the students stated thatt they wanted to have information about the safety of the vaccine, 49.5% wanted to be informed by the doctor, 22.8% wanted to be informed by the nurse. 39.6% percent of the mothers stated that they wanted to have information about the safety of the vaccine, 64% wanted to be informed by the doctor, 23% wanted to be informed by the nurse.In the light of the research results, for the information of the female students and their mothers about the HPV and its vaccine, education about HPV and its vaccine can be given during the seminar programs in schools by the cooperation of the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of National Education can be suggested.Key words: HPV, HPV vaccine, teenager, cervix cancer