Effect of educational intervention for compliance of school adolescents with the human papillomavirus vaccine

OBJECTIVE: to assess the effects of “Piss off, HPV!”, an educational intervention to increase adolescents’ knowledge, attitude and compliance with human papillomavirus vaccination. METHOD: a randomized clinical trial by cluster, carried out in six schools in two municipalities in Ceará, with 238 girls. The control group (n = 120) received routine instructions, and the intervention group (n = 118), printed message cards about the quadrivalent HPV vaccine. A pre- and post-intervention knowledge, attitude and practice survey was applied to both groups. The McNemar test, to analyze knowledge, attitude and pre- and post-intervention practice, the chi-square test, to compare compliance in relation to knowledge and attitude, and a logistic regression model, to assess vaccine compliance, were carried out. A significance level of 5% was adopted. RESULTS: pre-intervention, knowledge was inadequate and attitude was adequate in both groups. Post-intervention, adequate knowledge and practices became greater in the intervention group. Adequate post-intervention knowledge and attitude, in addition to being 12 years of age or older, increase the chance for vaccination, explaining 70% of the practice. CONCLUSION: the educational intervention was effective for adolescents’ knowledge and compliance with the quadrivalent HPV vaccine. UTN: U1111-1254-5546; ReBEC: RBR-107hzdqt.