Does viewing an educational documentary about HPV disease and vaccination on a college campus in rural Northwest PA improve the knowledge level of HPV disease and vaccine among attendees of the program?

Human Papillomavirus (HPV) is the most common sexually transmitted infection causing cervical, oropharyngeal cancers and genital warts. In the United States (U.S.), it is estimated that one in four individuals are infected, with an additional 14 million new cases of HPV infections occurring annually. HPV contributes to 17,600 cancers in women and 9,300 cancers in men annually. HPV vaccine is the most effective way to protect against HPV related cancers. However, there is a lag in HPV vaccination due to barriers such as: health care providers hesitancy to promote the HPV vaccine, low baseline knowledge of HPV and HPV vaccine, safety concerns, cost and system barriers. Studies show that there is low overall knowledge of baseline HPV and HPV vaccine among college students. The purpose of this study is to determine if an educational video intervention increases baseline knowledge of HPV and HPV vaccine in the attendees on a college campus in Northwestern Pennsylvania. To test this, a study design consisting of an educational session that utilizes an HPV educational video, followed by a brief question and answer session was developed. A questionnaire is implemented pre- and post-intervention to analyze HPV knowledge in participants. There were 22 participants who completed the study. Comparison analysis between the pre- and post-knowledge assessments show statistically significant improvement of results after viewing the educational documentary on HPV. The likelihood of getting a perfect score on the assessment increased by 13.7%, equating to a 70 percent reduction of incorrect answers from viewing the educational video.