Abstract:

Background: Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) is the most well-known causative agent of cervical cancer. It is significant/important) to protect cervical cancer with vaccination due to HPV. Objective: The study was conducted to determine the health belief levels of university students studying at the Faculty of Health Sciences regarding cervical cancer and HPV infection vaccination. Methods: This research was conducted in a descriptive type between 5th and 20th February 2020 at the faculty of health sciences of a public university. The data of the study were collected with a questionnaire and contained the socio-demographic characteristics of the students and information about cervical cancer with the Health Belief Model Scale for HPV Infection and Vaccination. Results: In the study, the mean age of the students was found to be 20.59±1.68, 50.7% of the students stated that they knew when the smear test was performed, 83.6% thought of getting vaccinated to prevent cervical cancer and 76.9% wanted detailed information about the vaccine. On the scale of Health Belief Model for HPV infection and vaccination of students, the mean of perceived benefit sub-dimension was determined to be 2.68±0.68, perceived susceptibility 2.70±.70, perceived seriousness 2.82±.70 and perceived barrier sub-dimension 2.42±.65. According to these findings, the perceived seriousness score of students, indicating the belief that HPV was an important cause of disease which would result in serious consequences, was found to be higher, and the mean of perceived barrier regarding negative cost, side effects, efficacy and reliability of HPV vaccine was also found to be high. Conclusion: It was determined that the students who were educated in the field of health had sufficient knowledge about cervical cancer. It was ascertained that students found HPV vaccine very beneficial and they had high susceptibility on this subject. It was found that the perceived seriousness and barrier scores were high for HPV. This situation indicates that the students believe that HPV infection is seen as a serious problem, but that there are many barriers to HPV vaccination. In this regard, it is recommended that more studies be conducted to identify barriers to vaccination. 

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