Abstract:

Background: Human Papillomavirus infection is a major global public health concern, with cervical cancer being the fourth most common cancer among women. Despite the availability of the HPV vaccine, uptake remains low in many communities in Nigeria. Nurse-led educational interventions have the potential to improve parental awareness and vaccine uptake. Objective: To determine the effect of a nurse-led educational intervention on parental uptake of the HPV vaccine among parents of adolescents in Kaduna North Senatorial District, Nigeria. Methods: A quasi-experimental pretest–posttest study was conducted among 208 parents of adolescents aged 9–14 years, equally allocated across four Local Government Areas (LGAs); Zaria and Sabon Gari (intervention) and Makarfi and Soba (control). A multistage sampling technique was used to select wards, communities, and households, with one parent recruited per household. Baseline data on HPV vaccine uptake were collected, followed by a structured nurse-led educational intervention. Post-intervention uptake was assessed three months later using the same questionnaire. Data were collected using a structured questionnaire, and the results were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics to address the research question to test the null hypotheses at a 0.05 level of significance. Results: The mean HPV vaccine uptake score in the intervention group increased significantly from 2.49 ± 2.37 at pretest to 4.12 ± 1.71 at post-test (t = –6.91, p < 0.001), while the control group showed no significant change (1.45 ± 2.14 vs 1.77 ± 2.18, t = –1.85, p = 0.067). The proportion of parents with high uptake in the intervention group increased from 52.9% to 86.3%, compared with a modest rise from 31.4% to 40.2% in the control group. Between-group comparisons confirmed that the intervention group achieved significantly higher uptake than the control group post-intervention (p < 0.001). Conclusion: Nurse-led educational interventions effectively improved parental uptake of the HPV vaccine in Kaduna North Senatorial District. These findings support the incorporation of structured nurse-led education into community-based immunization programs to enhance HPV vaccine coverage among adolescents. Recommendation: Integrating nurse-led educational programs into routine immunization outreach is recommended to improve HPV vaccine coverage in Nigeria.