Knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors of medical students regarding HPV and HPV vaccine

Introduction: HPV (Human papilloma virus) is the most common sexually transmitted infection and constitutes an important part of cancers for which infectious agents are blamed in its ethology. The most important duty of informing the public about HPV and the HPV vaccine with a high protection rate belongs to doctors. The curriculum and scope of this subject in medical education in our country is uncertain. We aimed to determine the knowledge, attitudes, and behaviours of our students about HPV and the HPV vaccine before the internship and to find out the change in their knowledge, attitudes, and behaviour status after the internship. Method: The population of the study consists of a total of 257 third and sixth grade students studying in the Faculty of Medicine at Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University during the 2018-2019 academic year. A questionnaire, including questions and suggestions about sociodemographic characteristics, and knowledge, attitudes and behavioural status about HPV infection and the HPV vaccine, was administered under supervision to third and sixth grade students between April and June 2019 without specifying their name and surname. Chi-square test was used for statistical evaluation. For statistical significance, p lt;0.050 was accepted.Results: 108 third grade and 91 sixth grade students participated in our study. Although HPV is known to play a role in the ethology of cervical cancer and anogenital warts (91%, 91.2%), this awareness was as low as 35.4%, 37.9% and 38.8%, respectively, in penis, anus and head and neck cancers. The knowledge level was statistically significant in favour of the sixth-grade students (p lt;0.001). When the attitudes and behaviours of the students were examined, the frequency of having the HPV vaccine was 4.5%. It was observed that the frequency of the idea of vaccination among the female students was higher than that of the male students (61.3%, 18.1%). No statistically significant difference was found among the possible variables that could affect the need for the HPV vaccine when compared according to the gender, grade, and the educational status of the mother or father (p gt; 0.05). The reason why the students did not have the HPV vaccine was related to the fact that they found the vaccine expensive and did not consider it necessary. Only 46.7% of the sixth-grade students thought that they could give their patients enough information about the HPV virus and vaccine when they graduated.Conclusion: The frequency of vaccination in our country is very low even among doctors. Training strategies should be developed to enable doctors to graduate with full knowledge of HPV and the HPV vaccine with multidimensional training programs

Knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors of medical students regarding HPV and HPV vaccine

Introduction: HPV (Human papilloma virus) is the most common sexually transmitted infection and constitutes an important part of cancers for which infectious agents are blamed in its ethology. The most important duty of informing the public about HPV and the HPV vaccine with a high protection rate belongs to doctors. The curriculum and scope of this subject in medical education in our country is uncertain. We aimed to determine the knowledge, attitudes, and behaviours of our students about HPV and the HPV vaccine before the internship and to find out the change in their knowledge, attitudes, and behaviour status after the internship. Method: The population of the study consists of a total of 257 third and sixth grade students studying in the Faculty of Medicine at Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University during the 2018-2019 academic year. A questionnaire, including questions and suggestions about sociodemographic characteristics, and knowledge, attitudes and behavioural status about HPV infection and the HPV vaccine, was administered under supervision to third and sixth grade students between April and June 2019 without specifying their name and surname. Chi-square test was used for statistical evaluation. For statistical significance, p lt;0.050 was accepted.Results: 108 third grade and 91 sixth grade students participated in our study. Although HPV is known to play a role in the ethology of cervical cancer and anogenital warts (91%, 91.2%), this awareness was as low as 35.4%, 37.9% and 38.8%, respectively, in penis, anus and head and neck cancers. The knowledge level was statistically significant in favour of the sixth-grade students (p lt;0.001). When the attitudes and behaviours of the students were examined, the frequency of having the HPV vaccine was 4.5%. It was observed that the frequency of the idea of vaccination among the female students was higher than that of the male students (61.3%, 18.1%). No statistically significant difference was found among the possible variables that could affect the need for the HPV vaccine when compared according to the gender, grade, and the educational status of the mother or father (p gt; 0.05). The reason why the students did not have the HPV vaccine was related to the fact that they found the vaccine expensive and did not consider it necessary. Only 46.7% of the sixth-grade students thought that they could give their patients enough information about the HPV virus and vaccine when they graduated.Conclusion: The frequency of vaccination in our country is very low even among doctors. Training strategies should be developed to enable doctors to graduate with full knowledge of HPV and the HPV vaccine with multidimensional training programs

Associated factors affecting the quality of life of the elderly

Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate factors affecting the quality of life of people aged 65 and over, living in the center of Çanakkale province. Method: The sample size in this cross-sectional study was determined as 961. 1001 participants were reached and data was collected using a face-to-face interview technique and questionnaires. Results: Following univariate analyses of the data, it was found that the following variables reduced the EUROHIS scores of the respondents: regretting the past, not accomplishing previous life goals, not being hopeful for the future, experiencing a fall in the last six months, having at least one chronic illness diagnosed by a physician requiring the long-term use of the medication, decrease in income status and dependence on activities within daily life. Conclusions: Longitudinal studies have been initiated, in cooperation with local authorities, in order to improve the quality of life of the elderly. These studies will follow up the biopsychosocial aspects of risk factors which reduce the quality of life of elderly individuals in our study group. Further investigations at the local and national levels will contribute to the implementation of the necessary interventions to address the unique needs of the elderly population