Abstract

Background: Human papilloma virus vaccine uptake is influenced by a number of factors, such as limited awareness, cultural, and religious misconceptions about the vaccine. There is also increasing concerns about the vaccine safety as well as logistics issues associated to the vaccine distribution. This study aimed to evaluate the knowledge about cervical cancer and the uptake of the HPV vaccine among women attending FMC Keffi, Nigeria.
Methodology: This is a cross-sectional study conducted on 250 sexually active females using a structured questionnaire-base method from September to December, 2024. Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 27 was used for analysis.
Results: The average age of the participants (250) was 25.92 years with a standard deviation of 7.31 years. Our data showed that 76.9% had never been screened for cervical cancer. Majority of those that are willing (60.2%) do not know when and where to be screened. Most (93.8%) participants have a higher education certificate but lack a clear understanding of the risk factors and the HPV vaccine. The most frequently reported symptom of the disease among respondents is foul-smelling vaginal discharge (9.3%), pelvic pain (9%), bleeding after sex (4.1%), and abnormal vaginal bleeding (2.2%). Majority of participants (75.4%) reported not experiencing any of these symptoms.
Conclusion: There is a lack of clear understanding of the risk factors associated with cervical cancer among the study participants which contributed to the low uptake of HPV vaccine. We advocated for awareness campaigns, access and affordable cervical cancer screening services vaccine uptake.

Keywords:Risk factors; Human papilloma virus; Human papilloma virus vaccine; Cervical cancer