Abstract:

In the study, it was aimed to evaluate the basic knowledge and attitudes of students studying in under graduate health programs about HPV infection and HPV vaccines. The study was cross-sectional with 238 Dentistry Faculty and Health Sciences School students studying in Nevşehir between 25.04.2022 and 14.06.2022. The questionnaire was answered digitally and consisted of sociodemographic data, HPV infection information, HPV vaccine information, and attitudes toward HPV vaccines.186 of the participants were women (78.2%), the average age was 20.9 (min: 18; max: 33, ss: 1.65).Of tho se who know the relationship between cervical cancer and HPV infection are at the rate of 84%. It was observed that 86% of women and 82.6% of men believed that HPV vaccine was protective against cervical cancer. The rate of women who accepted the safety of the vaccine was 47.8%, while the rate of men was 34.6%.Inthestudy, the means core was 16.82 and the knowledge level of the participants was found to be 'sufficient'. In the study, the rate of women with sufficient HPV knowledge level was 51.6%, the proportion of men is 12.8%.While there was no significant relationship between the knowledge level of the participants and their gender (p=0.925), a statistically significant relationship was found between the programs they studied and their knowledge levels (p<0.001). The faculty of dentistry students constituted 42.9% (6/14) of the category of 'good', which is the highest level of knowledge. The results emphasize that more education and awareness s studies on HPV infection should be carried out so that future health professional candidates can take an active role in preventive health services and enlighten society.

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