Development of a Study Tool to Measure Awareness of Human Papillomavirus Vaccine Among Cancer Patients and Their Intention to Recommend the Vaccine

Background Literature suggests that there is poor awareness and uptake of the Human Papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine in India. The role of cancer patients as potent advocates for HPV vaccine in their community is vital due to their first-hand experience with the turmoil that accompanies cancer. Hence, we have developed a study tool to measure the psychometric constructs “Awareness” of HPV vaccine among cancer patients and “Intention” to recommend the vaccine. Methods The theoretical concepts of the Health Belief Model were applied, feedback from oncologists at Basavatarakam Indo-American Cancer Hospital and Research Institute and public health experts at Indian Institute of Public Health to develop the study tool. A 24 items study tool was finalized following pre-testing and content validation. A sample size of 5:1 (participant:item) was considered adequate to conduct exploratory factor analysis (EFA). The pilot study tool was administered for validation to 150 cancer patients visiting the hospital during June–July 2023. The data were analysed using Jamovi (Version2.3). Results The McDonald’s omega was 0.8, which indicates good internal consistency of the data. EFA using parallel analysis with maximum likelihood extraction method and Promax oblique rotation with factor loadings above 0.4 revealed a 3-factor solution with 21 items. Factors were named “Capability”, “Awareness” and “Risk perception” respectively. The correlation between “Awareness” and “Risk Perception” was 0.28; between “Capability” and “Risk perception” 0.47. “Awareness” and “Capability” had a weak negative correlation(-0.02). Conclusions The study tool could effectively measure individual constructs of awareness and intention. Notably, our findings indicate a weak correlation between awareness and one component of intention (capability), within this population. This aspect, rigorously measured and validated by our study tool, holds significance as it implies that despite a low level of awareness in this population, they may still be considered as potentially influential advocates for the HPV vaccine.