Summary
Asian Americans are one of the fastest growing minority groups in the USA, and the literature notes high rates of human papillomavirus (HPV). In this study, authors aimed to address whether key social determinants of health, especially health literacy, in combination with English language proficiency, and immigration status, were key factors in HPV knowledge and awareness among Asian Americans.
The data was collected from the California Health Interview Survey (CHIS). The study population consisted of Asian adult females from 18 to 65 years of age, with a sample size of 2050 representing a population of 1,552,710
Findings: Nearly 45% of the population reported that they never heard of HPV, while 14% reported thinking HPV can cause AIDS, and 13% reported that HPV can go away on its own. HPV knowledge, however, was varied by Asian-American ethnicity as well as being foreign-born. When compared with Japanese subgroup, Chinese, South Asians, and Koreans were less likely to have heard of HPV. Having heard of HPV was 31% lower among Asian Americans who were foreign-born, as compared with those who were U.S.-born. Foreign-born Asian Americans were 196% more likely to think HPV causes AIDS. Ever having heard of HPV was also associated with low English-language proficiency (70% lower), low health literacy (45% lower), and a combination of both (55%). While, those with low English-language proficiency understood HPV is a sexually transmitted infection, a substantially high number associated it with AIDS.
Interventions towards increasing health literacy among Asian Americans are imperative in order increase HPV vaccination rates to reduce cervical cancer rates/deaths.
