Investigator

Susan M Sherman

Professor of Psychology · University of Sheffield, School of Psychology

SMSSusan M Sherman
Papers(1)
A survey of knowledge…
Institutions(1)
Keele University

Papers

A survey of knowledge, attitudes and awareness of the human papillomavirus among healthcare professionals across the UK

Human papillomavirus (HPV) is a common sexually transmitted infection implicated in 5% of cancers worldwide including most cervical cancer cases. In the UK, the HPV vaccine has been offered routinely to girls aged 11-13 since 2008 while cervical screening is offered to women aged 25-64. HPV testing will soon replace cytology as the primary screening method. This research evaluates what healthcare professionals (HCPs) across the UK know about HPV. A total of 643 UK-based HCPs from primary and secondary care took part in an anonymous cross-sectional survey between March and April 2018. The survey measured general HPV knowledge; HPV triage and test of cure knowledge; HPV vaccine knowledge; attitudes to the HPV vaccine and self-perceived adequacy of knowledge. Participants had a generally good understanding of HPV and the vaccination but there were gaps in detailed knowledge of the National Health Service HPV testing processes. There were some gaps in knowledge about the health sequelae of HPV for males. Years since HPV training was associated with triage and test of cure and vaccine knowledge scores. Furthermore, nurses and doctors in colposcopy clinics had much greater odds of having higher knowledge across all domains than other roles. In total, 76.2% of participants felt adequately informed about HPV and 35.6% made suggestions for improvements in training, many of which requested additional frequency and topics. Our results suggest that additional training is needed to ensure HCPs are equipped to deal with the changing landscape of HPV screening and vaccination in the UK.

71Works
1Papers

Positions

2024–

Professor of Psychology

University of Sheffield · School of Psychology

2024–

Professor

Keele University · School of Psychology

2021–

Reader

Keele University · School of Psychology

2014–

Senior Lecturer

Keele University · School of Psychology

2005–

Lecturer

Keele University · School of Psychology

2004–

Lecturer (fixed term)

University of Sheffield · Department of Human Communication Sciences

2003–

Lecturer (fixed term)

University of Kent · Department of Psychology

Education

2004

PhD

University of Kent · Psychology

1998

MA Distinction Language Acquisition

University of Essex · Linguistics

1997

BSc (Hons) 1st Class Computational Linguistics

University of Manchester (UMIST) · Linguistics

Country

GB

Keywords
HPVcervical cancercervical screeningfalse memorymemoryvaccination