Factors Influencing Intention to Obtain HPV Vaccine in Young College women in Songkhla Province

Abstract

Low uptake of HPV vaccine has been presented among college women in Thailand. Currently the uptake among college women has fallen behind the uptake of the school girl population. Intention is often disclosed as a precursor of uptake. In order to develop an intervention to increase the uptake in the Thai catch-up population, a study to understand the significant predictors for intention is needed. This study aimed to examine the level of intention to obtain HPV vaccine and determined the factors influencing the intention to obtain HPV vaccine in young Thai college women. This cross-sectional research included college women aged 18 to 26 years from non-health-related areas of study. Using the purposive sampling technique, three hundred and seventy eight questionnaire sets were distributed in ten faculties of Songkhla Rajabhat University and Prince of Songkla University, Hat Yai Campus. Cognitive validation through the think-aloud technique was completed. The content validity index was judged by three experts yielding a CVI of 1 for all the questionnaire constructs. The Cronbach's alpha coefficient of attitude to obtain HPV vaccination was 0.930, subjective norm to obtain HPV vaccination was 0.866, perceived behavioral control to obtain HPV vaccination was 0.894, perceived susceptibility of not obtaining HPV vaccine was 0.921, perceived of vaccine effectiveness was 0.912 and cost of HPV vaccination was 0.877. Additionally, the Kuder Richardson 20 (KR-20), coefficient of knowledge of HPV and cervical cancer was 0.714. The intention was categorized into three levels using class interval and the factors influencing intention was determined using multiple regression analysis. One hundred and ninety one college women qualified for the analysis. Overall, the level of intention to obtain HPV vaccination was high. The percentage of female college women with moderate and high intention to obtain the vaccine of HPV was similar, 44% and 45%, respectively. Attitude to obtain HPV vaccine, perceived behavioral control and perceived susceptibility of not obtaining HPV vaccine were the factors that influenced intention to obtain HPV vaccine and explained 40.1% variance of intention to obtain HPV vaccine. The educational material for increasing intention should emphasize the attitude to obtain HPV vaccination, perceived behavioral control and perceived susceptibility of not obtaining HPV vaccine. However, the factors associated with the realization of intention toward uptake of HPV vaccination require further study.