Physician’s Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice towards Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) Vaccine Recommendation in Anantapur District, Andhra Pradesh, India

Globally, cervical cancer occupies the 4th place. In India, cervical cancer ranks 2^nd leading cause of cancer-related deaths. Evidence revealed that the HPV vaccine shows 95% of efficacy in the prevention of cervical cancer. Still, physicians are not recommending the HPV vaccine and it’s not available in the universal immunization program (UIP) in India. The study aims to assess the physician’s knowledge, attitude, and practice (KAP) towards HPV vaccine recommendation. A cross-sectional study was conducted among physicians of government, private, trust, and primary health care (PHC) hospitals. A suitable, pre-validated KAP questionnaire was used to collect data related to socio-demographics, knowledge about HPV infection and vaccination, attitude towards the barriers (high cost, non-efficacious, STD, unsafe, non-availability in UIP) and practice of HPV vaccine recommendation. A Chi-square test was used to correlate non-modifiable and modifiable factors for HPV vaccine recommendation. Among 296 physicians, the majority (118; 31.8%) are between 20 and 30 years of age with a mean 35.84±10.12.Physician’sknowledge towards HPV infection and vaccination is moderate (142; 47.9%, 92; 31.1%) and poor (115; 38.8%, 74; 25.0%). Only, 33.4% of the physicians are recommending the HPV vaccine to their clients. Physician’s belief about the “HPV vaccine is not effective” was significantly associated (P 0.006) with poor practice. We conclude, the majority of the physicians had moderate or poor knowledge about HPV infection and vaccine. Only, 33.4% of the physicians are recommending the HPV vaccine to their clients. There is a need to fulfill the knowledge gap among physicians to improve practices of vaccine recommendation.