Prevalence and knowledge of Human Papillomavirus among men who have sex with men in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City in 2018

Abstract

A cross-sectional study was conducted among 800 men who have sex with men (MSM) in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh city (HCMC)
between December 2017 and March 2019 to describe the status of Human Papillomavirus (HPV) prevalence and knowledge related to HPV of this group. Respondent-DrivenSampling (RDS) method was applied to recruit the study participants. The result showed that the proportion of MSM who were infected with any HPV subtypes was 29.8%. The rate of sufcient knowledge on HPV, prevention of HPV infection, and anal cancer remained low, at 2.5%, 13.1%, and 11.5% respectively. These
rates among MSM in Hanoi were higher than those in HCMC (p < 0.05). In addition, the study has not found an association between knowledge of HPV, knowledge of HPV prophylaxis and knowledge of anal cancer for HPV infection in MSM. However, the study suggest the need for communication programs to improve knowledge about HPV, prevention of HPV infection and
anal cancer among MSM for prevention, early detection and treatment, thereby preventing the development of cancer in this population.