Lack of awareness of the HPV vaccination campaign among Brazilian students: a multilevel analysis

Abstract

The scope of this article is to analyze the association between lack of awareness of the HPV vaccination campaign among Brazilian adolescents and individual and contextual factors. It involved a cross-sectional study with data from the National Student Health Survey (2015). Bivariate analysis was performed and Prevalence Ratios were calculated, in a multilevel Poisson Regression (95%CI) to verify the effect of variables on the outcome. The outcome was significantly associated with being 15-19 years old (PR=1.36), studying during the afternoon/night shift (PR=1.05), having already had sexual intercourse (PR=1.10), with self-perceived poor or very poor health status (PR=1.23), dissatisfied (PR=1.14) or indifferent (PR=1.15) regarding their body image, playing truant from classes without parental consent (PR=1.10) and studying at a public school (PR=1.24). There was less prevalence of the outcome among females (PR=0.24) and in states with greater income inequality (PR=0.80). The lack of awareness about the HPV vaccination campaign among adolescents was associated with individual characteristics, the context of the school and the unit of the federation. These findings indicate the importance of enhancing health promotion for vulnerable young people.