The Effect of Social Media on Women's Health Beliefs Regarding Human Papilloma Virus Infection and Vaccine
Project no. 22669 · Status: Kapanmış · 2021
Summary
Aim: The aim of this study is to determine the effect of social media on health beliefs about Human Papilloma Virus infection and vaccine and the relationship between them. Material and Methods: The research is descriptive and cross-sectional, and its sample consisted of 174 women aged 18 and over living in Turkey between 01 March - 01 June 2021, who can speak and understand Turkish, can read and write, have internet access and use social media. “Individual Identification Form”, “Social Media Usage Motives (SMUM)”, “Health Belief Model Scale for Human Papilloma Virus and its Vaccination (HBMS-HPVV)” were used. The-data were collected online with the help of Google-survey. Descriptive statistical analysis, kolmogorov smirnov test and spearman correlation analysis was used. This work was supported by Ege University Scientific Research Projects Coordination Unit. Project Number: TLP-2021-22669. Results: The-average age of the women was 26.33± 6.93, 58.0% of them used social media for 1-4 hours a day, 77.0% of them did not read the posts and experiences about HPV on social media. While 67.2% of women have information about HPV. The most information about HPV are school/course (37.9%) and internet/social media (34.5%). Women were 71.3% had heard of HPV vaccine, and 5.7% had HPV vaccine. Mean total score of the women's SMUM was 37.98±7.58. Women mostly use social media to follow the-news and access information. Mean total score of HBMS-HPVV was 11.12±1.88. High score indicates a strong belief in HPV and its vaccine. Mean scores of sub-dimensions of scale were determined as 3.09±0.65 for the-perception of benefits, 3.06±0.69 for the-perception of severity, 2.96±0.74 for the-perception of susceptibility, and 1.99±0.57 for the-perception of barriers. Positive and significant relationship was found between SMUM and their HBMS-HPVV (p<0.05). Conclusion: It is shown that social media can have an impact on society regarding HPV infection and vaccination decisions.