Human Papilloma Virus Vaccine Acceptance Among In-School Female Adolescents: A Comparative Study in Osun- State Nigeria

Globally, Human papillomavirus is a sexually transmitted infection. It is one of the major causes of infection-related cancer worldwide and is the causal factor in other diseases such as genital warts. Half of the sexually active adolescents are estimated to have HPV infection at one time during their lifetime. Protection against HPV includes abstinence from sex and immunization against the HPV virus with HPV vaccines before an adolescent has any sexual contact with another person. There is a dearth of studies exploring the acceptance of the HPV vaccine among secondary school female adolescents, hence the study aims to identify and compare the willingness and factors that influence the acceptance of HPV vaccine among in-school female adolescents in rural and urban areas in Osun State. A comparative cross-sectional study of 400 adolescents in rural and urban areas (200 per group) of Osun state utilized the multistage sampling technique. Quantitative data were collected using a semi-structured questionnaire and analyzed using SPSS version 25.   The level of acceptance of the HPV vaccine among the respondents is low. In addition, there is a statistically significant difference between the level of acceptance of the HPV vaccine among rural and urban dwellers, with 23% of respondents from urban areas willing to accept the HPV vaccine compared with 17.5% of rural regions (p-value =0.01). Furthermore, (63.0%) of the respondents were from urban areas, and a more significant percentage (72.0%) of the respondents from rural areas were unaware of the HPV vaccine; this difference was statistically significant p= 0.043. This study revealed that rural/urban location significantly affects the awareness and acceptance ofthe HPV vaccine among these adolescents. Therefore, information and communication programs that are culturally appropriate and target educational intervention for accepting the HPV vaccine are recommended.