FACTORS INFLUENCING CERVICAL CANCER PREVENTION BEHAVIOR OF FEMALE COLLEGE STUDENTS IN THEIR 20S

Pil-Hwan Kim and *Kyoung-Nam Kim

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study was to identify the general and sexual characteristics of female college students in their 20s and impacts of HPV-related knowledge of, attitudes toward HPV vaccination, and health beliefs on infection preventive behavioral intention targeting female university students. Subjects of this study were 196 female students from Department of Nursing, located in B City. 196 students were eligible and all agreed to participate. Data were analyzed using the SPSS WIN 22.0 program. As a result of this study, the average knowledge about cervical cancer prevention vaccine was 8.44±2.47, and the average attitude toward cervical cancer was 9.37±2.52. The average for cancer prevention performance was 52.4±7.60. Cancer prevention has been positively correlated with attitude(r=.210, p=.003) toward cervical cancer. The knowledge of cervical cancer prevention vaccines was found to have no statistically significant correlation. Attitudes toward cervical cancer showed positive correlation with knowledge(r=.210, p<.001) about cervical cancer vaccination. The factor affecting the prevention of cervical cancer was attitudes toward cervical cancer (β =.19, p=.014). The explanatory power explaining the factors influencing the cervical cancer prevention performance of the subjects was 21.5%. Based on the results of this study, if a nursing arbitration program is developed and applied with a positive attitude regarding treatment, early detection, prevention, severity, and examination of cervical cancer, These findings may be useful to develop strategies to improve the HPV infection preventive behavioral intention of the female college students who have a high risk of the HPV infection.

Keywords: Cervical cancer, Knowledge, Attitude, Vaccination, Intention.