Perceptions of nurses on human papillomavirus vaccinations in the Republic of Korea

BACKGROUND: In June 2016, the Republic of Korea included free human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccinations for all 12-year-old girls in its national immunization program. PURPOSE: This study investigated perceptions of nurses on HPV vaccination and their intent to vaccinate preteens at the best ages. METHODS: Recruited for the survey were 514 health teachers (181, 35.2%), public health nurses (168, 32.7%), and clinical nurses (165, 32.1%). Factor-analysis was conducted to validate the Vaccine-Hesitancy Scale for Korean nurses. Related variables associated with vaccine-acceptance were examined using the Kruskal–Wallis test and Spearman’s rho coefficients, due to lack of normalization. RESULTS: Factor-analysis results showed that two factors of positive acceptance (7 items) and negative acceptance (3 items) accounted for 67.46% of the total variance, and explained 47.4% and 20.1%, respectively. Nurses who positively accepted HPV vaccine differed significantly in agreement to vaccinate girls or boys. For the proper vaccination age, a significant difference emerged between answers for girls and vaccine-acceptance scores, whereas no difference emerged between answers for boys and the scores. The vaccinated status of respondents significantly related to higher HPV vaccine acceptance, although age, religion, marital status, education, and working duration did not. CONCLUSIONS: This study showed that vaccine-acceptance levels reflect nurses’ attitudes and opinions about HPV vaccination for girls and boys.