Have you ever heard of Human Papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine? The awareness of HPV vaccine for college students in China based on meta-analysis

Abstract

Objective: To evaluate the awareness of College Students (CSs) of HPV vaccine in China and provide evidence-based recommendations for HPV vaccine’s publicity and promotion. Methods: Web of Science, PubMed, Science of Direct, EBSCO, China National Knowledge Infrastructure and Wanfang Data were searched. A random effects meta-analysis was conducted to determine pooled estimates of Awareness Rate (AR) for HPV vaccine. Results: Of the 36 studies included, the estimated AR of HPV vaccine was 40.27% (95% CI: 30.86%, 50.06%) among Chinese CSs. The AR of HPV vaccine was stratified by factors as gender, major, area, city, survey time, and sampling method of the study. The pooled AR of HPV vaccine among CSs was as follows: 44.17% (95% CI: 31.65%, 57.09%) and 31.93% (95% CI: 13.25%, 54.30%) for females and males; 44.47% (95% CI: 29.90%, 59.55%) and 12.02% (95% CI: 7.69%, 17.15%) for medical-related and nonmedical majors; 44.47% (95% CI: 28.71–60.82%) and 41.16% (95% CI: 26.48–56.64%) for Eastern and Midwestern region; 48.86% (95% CI: 30.63–67.25%) and 33.19% (95% CI: 22.27–45.12%) for first-tier and second- and third-tier city; 29.67 (95% CI: 11.44–52.16%) and 38.81 (95% CI: 27.14–51.21%) for AR before and after HPV vaccine entered in China; 51.51% (95% CI: 32.21%, 70.53%) and 26.21% (95% CI: 17.41%, 36.10%) for nonrandom and random sampling. Conclusion: This review indicates that awareness of HPV vaccine among CSs remains relatively low in China compared with European countries. Our findings may provide useful information to better understand the HPV vaccine awareness status among Chinese CSs.