Dental Students' Perception, Awareness and Knowledge About HPV Infection, Vaccine, and Its Association with Oral Cancer: A Multinational Study

Background

Human papilloma virus (HPV) infection forms a major etiological factor for oropharyngeal cancer (OPC), which has exhibited increased global incidence.

Aim

To compare the knowledge regarding HPV, its association with OPC, and HPV vaccine among students from different countries, years of the undergraduate program, and gender.

Methods

The current multinational cross-sectional study was conducted in 886 undergraduate dental students from Egypt, India, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, UAE, and Sudan through Google survey forms from July 2021 to September 2021. The survey form comprised 27 items divided into four sections. The answers to the questionnaire were compared among students from different countries, different years of the undergraduate program, and males and females. Chi-square test was used to evaluate the correlation between the demographic characteristics of students and their knowledge regarding HPV and OPC.

Results

Females exhibited a better knowledge regarding knowledge and perception on HPV vaccine, whereas males exhibited a better knowledge regarding HPV and its correlation with OPC, and these differences were statistically significant (P < 0.05). The third- and fourth-year undergraduate students displayed a higher awareness of OPC and its connection with HPV than other year students, and this variance was found to be statistically significant (P < 0.001). Third-year and internship students exhibited a more positive attitude and comfort regarding the vaccine and discussing the same with patients than the other educational-level students. Students from India exhibited better knowledge about HPV and its association with OPC than the students from other countries, and this difference was statistically significant (P < 0.001).

Conclusion

Disparities in knowledge regarding HPV-related oral cancer have been detected among the female and male participants among different nations. From the entire study population, Indian students exhibited better knowledge regarding HPV. Females from all the nations exhibited a more positive attitude and comfort regarding the vaccine and discussing the same with patients than males. The results of this necessitate intervention measures including training workshops and awareness campaigns. Improving their knowledge regarding the same may increase their awareness, resulting in better patient care.

Stretching a Buck: Using Administrative Data to Inform Continuous Quality Improvement

While the nFORM administrative data system is used to collect operations and performance data from HHS funded Healthy Marriage and Responsible Fatherhood (HMRF) grantees to evaluate program performance using top line measures like enrollment and attendance of workshops, the rich data collected through the system provides an unparalleled window into the workings of the HMRF programs and the population they serve. This paper describes how raw data exported from the nFORM system have been used to develop econometric models to understand the relationship of demographic and socio-economic characteristics on program enrollment and attendance, the effectiveness of incentives and behavioral nudges on program participation, as well as changes in behaviors and attitudes due to the intervention. Moreover, the paper discusses how patterns revealed through mining the raw nFORM data combined with other administrative data has provided insights into deficiencies in outreach and recruitment efforts, and highlights how the relative effectiveness of steps taken to remedy the deficiencies can also be tracked using the data. Lastly, the paper presents recommendations and best practices in using nFORM and other similar administrative data to inform continuous quality improvement of HMRF programs without stretching the budget.

A Systems Approach to International Education: How Administrative Data is Being used to Track the Progress of USAID's Education Strategy

While rigorous evaluation of donor funded education interventions are quite common in developing countries, the data collected and analyzed to assess the interventions are not always published. Even when published, the data often lack codebooks and technical documentation, guidance on how to correctly use the data, and most frustratingly only contain meta-information pertaining to the design of the intervention and evaluation in free text in PDF reports. Such practices reduce the overall quality of the data and meta-data making it very difficult to be used for secondary analysis to answer policy relevant questions. To address such challenges, this paper describes the integrated data system developed to securely receive, review, harmonize, ingest, curate, and publish standardized public use Early Grade Reading Assessment data and meta-data to track the progress of the 2011-2015 USAID Education Strategy. The paper discusses the underlying methodological framework for systematically reviewing the data for quality and completeness as well as the approach to profile the design of the intervention and evaluation to assess its rigor using the system. Lastly, the paper illustrates how the meta-data created through the systematic review process combined with the data collected and processed through the system can be used for developing dynamic data products that reduce the technical barriers for such data to be used by a wide range of stakeholders to inform critical policy decisions.