Effect of educational intervention based on perceived benefits and barriers on human papillomavirus inoculation in vulnerable women: Application of health belief model

Genital wart virus (HPV) is the most common sexually transmitted disease. The need to develop preventive education to avoid HPV in different communities has been considered. Due to the need to develop comprehensive health promotion programs for vulnerable women, including prevention programs, vaccination inoculation and early diagnosis, the present study was conducted to determine the effect of perceived benefits and barriers to HPV vaccination in vulnerable women.

This randomized controlled clinical trial study was performed as a pretest-posttest in 1397 on 64 vulnerable women in welfare centers in Isfahan. Women were divided into intervention and control groups. Training on perceived benefit structures and barriers (using the Health Belief Model) regarding the intention to inoculate human papilloma vaccine was performed during 4 training sessions in the intervention group. Research units were evaluated before, immediately and 6 weeks after the test with a researcher-made questionnaire. Data analysis was performed using independent t-test, Mann-Whitney and Chi-square. The tests were performed at an error level of 5% using SPSS software (version 22).

The analysis of data showed that in the intervention group, the implementation of the intervention caused a significant increase in perceived benefits and a significant decrease in perceived barriers immediately after the test (p <0.001). 6 weeks after the test, perceived benefits were stable (p = 0.840) and perceived barriers were significantly reduced (p = 0.017). Also, the intention of vaccine inoculation behavior immediately after the test and 6 weeks after the test increased significantly (p = 0.001), while in the control group, changes in benefit scores, barriers and intention to behave in three stages of measurement were not significant.

According to the results of the study, the educational program based on the constructs of benefits and perceived barriers of women is effective in increasing their intention to inoculate human papillomavirus vaccine.