Background/Purpose: Women with autoimmune rheumatic disease (ARDs) have a higher risk for cervical cancer due to the persistence of the HPV infection. HPV vaccination is crucial in our population ascribed to a higher incidence of cervical cancer and high mortality rates. According to the literature vaccination rates remain low, and factors such as knowledge, beliefs, attitudes, and acceptability are associated with the patient’s decision to be vaccinated. We aimed to identify the level of knowledge, attitudes, and intentions towards HPV vaccination among reproductive-age women with ARDs.

Methods: An observational, descriptive, transversal study was conducted among reproductive-age women (18 – 45 years) with ARDs who attended the Rheumatology clinic in a University Hospital. They were asked to answer a self-reported and validated survey “knowledge, attitudes, and intentions towards HPV vaccination” (KAI-VPH) applied in Spanish from May 2024 to June 2024. The Kolmogorov–Smirnov, Spearman, Kendall’s Tau, and Mann–Whitney U tests were employed. Demographic characteristics are presented as frequencies, percentages, median, mean, standard deviation (SD), and interquartile range (IQR).

Results: A total of 71 reproductive-age women with ARDs were included. The median age was 38.84 (SD: 7.49). The sociodemographic and clinical characteristics of the patient’s knowledge and intentions toward HPV vaccination are shown in Table 1. We found that only 21 (29.6%) women had their HPV vaccination status complete even if 84.5% had heard about the vaccine before. A total of 63.4% had a history of cervical cytology performed once in their lives and the majority had it in the last year (60%). We found a statistically significant positive correlation between the knowledge about HPV and vaccination and the education level of the patients (r= 0.392, p= 0.001). 

Regarding attitude, 56.3% believed that based on the sexual practices in the country of the population studied, there is a high risk of contracting the infection. Most participants consider contracting HPV to be a serious disease (43.7%), and there was a statistically significant positive correlation with the performance of cervical cytology among patients (p=0.015). A total of 54.9% strongly agreed that gynecologists should recommend the vaccine to their patients, even if they come from conservative families, and the same percentage strongly agreed to recommend vaccination to their friends, even if they come from conservative families. The intention to vaccinate at the end of the survey was assessed among the 50 women who had not been previously vaccinated or did not know if they were vaccinated, and a statistically significant correlation was found between education level and positive vaccination intention (r=0.243, p=0.044).

Conclusion: Although aware of the HPV vaccine, less than a third of our population is vaccinated. More than half have taken cervical cytology at least once in their lifetime, the majority in the last year. Most of our population had a moderate level of knowledge. The attitude towards HPV vaccination was mainly positive and associated with a higher level of education among women.

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ACR Meeting Abstracts - https://acrabstracts.org/abstract/knowledge-attitudes-and-intention-towards-hpv-vaccination-among-reproductive-age-women-with-rheumatic-diseases/