Resumen

ARIAS GOMEZ, María Luisa  y  PINEDA LINCE, Sheila Andrea. KNOWLEDGE STUDENTS FROM A PUBLIC UNIVERSITY IN MANIZALES HAVE ABOUT THE HUMAN PAPILLOMAVIRUS. Hacia promoc. Salud [online]. 2011, vol.16, n.1, pp.110-123. ISSN 0121-7577.

Objective: to identify the level of knowledge that the students of a public university in Manizales have about Human Papillomavirus (HPV). Methodology and methods: this is a descriptive, cross-cutting method study carried out with a population of 1,935 students registered at Universidad de Caldas during the 2009-II academic period. One stratified random sample of 536 students from both gender all belonging to academic undergraduate programs who were in the first semester with 70 to 84 credit hours already accredited, was taken. A survey was applied to determine the social-demographic characteristics and the knowledge about HPV. Results: 25% of the surveyed students who participated in the survey have a high level of knowledge about HPV, 32% have a mid level of knowledge, 23% have a low level of knowledge, and 20% don`t have any knowledge about HPV. After the analysis it can be observed that the social-demographic characteristics taken into account are related with the level of knowledge the students have. It is important to highlight the deep lack of knowledge in areas such as the types of lesions the virus causes (70.5%), the patients in whom these lesions are commonly present (69%), which the risk factors to get infected are (72.6%), the diagnosis (63.2%), and how to prevent it (54%). Conclusions: the lack of knowledge about HPV is high among the surveyed population which can be considered as one of the main risk factors to get infected with HPV. As a consequence, it is necessary to start implementing specific sex health education programs at the University.

Palabras clave : Human Papillomavirus (HPV); knowledge; university students.

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