title: [Acceptability of the HPV vaccine among Spanish university students in the pre-vaccine era: a cross-sectional study].
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Cervical cancer (CC), the second most common cause of cancer deaths in women, is associated with the infection of human papillomavirus (HPV) and is more prevalent in women between the ages of 20 and 24. This research is aimed to determine the background about CC, the human papillomavirus infection and its vaccine, assessing its acceptability in university students.
  
  
  METHODS
  Cross-sectional study over 1,750 students from the University of Alicante (2008) selected at random, proportional associated to gender and studies, by a validated ad-hoc questionnaire. Percentages were computed, confidence intervals, contingency tables according to sex, age and type of studies, calculating adjusted odd ratios (OR).
  
  
  RESULTS
  A sample with 58.6 % of women and 6.6% of biohealth students was obtained. 87.3% were willing to have the vaccine to prevent human papillomavirus (HPV), 94.3% would give this vaccine to their daughters, and 48.0% had heard someone talk about the vaccine. 90.6% didn't have a lot of knowledge about the HPV infection and 82.2% didn't know much about the vaccine. 22.4% had knowledge of the association between HPV and CC. Women register higher OR in acknowledging the problem and are more receptive to having the vaccine. The HPV vaccine acceptability is associated to the sex, the confidence of vaccines as a preventive method; the influence of the background is low in relation to the vaccine predisposition.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  A high acceptability of the vaccine was observed in the period of the study. Raising confidence in people about the vaccines can influence for a better predisposition to be vaccinated.
authors.affiliation: José Tuells, Cátedra de Vacunología "Balmis" UA-FISABIO. Universidad de Alicante, Ctra. de San Vicente del Raspeig s/n. 03690 Alicante, Spain. tuells@ua.es.
authors.forename: Pablo
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Caballero-Pérez
authors.forename: José
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Tuells
authors.forename: Joseba
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Rementería
authors.forename: Andreu
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Nolasco
authors.forename: Vicente
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Navarro-López
authors.forename: Javier
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Arístegui
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D001290:Attitude; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003625:Data Collection; D005260:Female; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D030361:Papillomavirus Infections / Q000276:immunology / Q000517:prevention & control*; D053918:Papillomavirus Vaccines; D010342:Patient Acceptance of Health Care; D012737:Sex Factors; D013030:Spain; D013334:Students; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014495:Universities; D014611:Vaccination / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D053918:Papillomavirus Vaccines