Abstract
Background & objectives India contributes maximum to world's cervical cancer burden. Prevention through vaccination is one of the pillars of the global strategy adopted by the World Health Organization (WHO) for the elimination of cervical cancer. Uptake of human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine, which is about to be introduced in Universal Immunization Programme can be predicted by assessing its acceptance. Methods A quasi-experimental study was conducted among parents of adolescent girls of Bishnupur from February to May 2023 to evaluate the effect of a one-on-one health educational intervention programme on acceptance of the HPV vaccine. Data were collected by face-to-face interviews using a structured questionnaire based on the Health Belief Model from 70 participants selected through convenience sampling. Participants who responded 'definitely yes' to getting their daughters vaccinated with the HPV vaccine were considered as 'vaccine acceptant'. Health education comprised three sessions two wk apart. Descriptive statistics, Cochrane's Q and ANOVA were applied using SPSS 26. Results The median age of the participants was 38 (IQR: 34-44) yr, and 77.1 per cent were females. HPV vaccine acceptance improved significantly over time from 61.4 to 81.4 to 88.6 per cent (P=0.001), respectively. On application of repeated measure ANOVA, perceived benefits of vaccination (P<0.001) and perceived susceptibility to disease (P<0.001) improved significantly across the three time points, whereas perceived severity (P=0.051) and perceived barriers (P=0.367) did not. Interpretation & conclusions Health education intervention was effective at improving vaccine acceptance. Awareness programmes before the rollout of HPV vaccination and continuous re-enforcement would improve parents' perceived benefits and thereby potentially increase vaccine coverage.