Adult female awareness of HPV and its associated diseases
Information for nursing staff, 2025, 57(1), 23-28.
E. Petkova1, M. Kamburova2, E. Mineva2
1 Department of Midwifery, Faculty of Health Care, Medical University – Pleven
2 Department of Social Medicine and Health Management, Faculty of Public Health, Medical University – Pleven
Abstract. Introduction: Good health literacy and prevention have been the main methods to reduce the incidence of the Human Papilloma Virus and the development of its associated diseases. The competence of young age persons about the risk factors and the ways to prevent infection has been the basis of primary prevention. Objective: To analyze the awareness of adult females related to the risk factors for HPV infection and the development of an associated disease. Materials and Methods: A case-control study was carried out in the period January 2020-May 2022. The cases included 100 adult women with HPV-associated disease. As a control group, 100 adult women with other gynecological diseases or clinically healthy were randomly selected. The respondents had visited medical facilities for outpatient and/or inpatient obstetric and gynecological care in the city of Pleven. Data processing was performed with the software program MS Office Excel 2019 and SPSS v.28. Results: The study found a higher awareness of HPV, among women in the case group 63.0% (63 people), compared to the control group (57.0%). Low levels of health literacy related to the risk factors for infection were demonstrated – 34.0% of the cases and 45.0% of the control group. Conclusion: The low degree of awareness had been a prerequisite for high incidence rates of HPV-associated diseases. There was a need to increase health literacy among the female population.
Key words: HPV, awareness, health literacy, adult women