Knowledge and attitudes of Spanish adolescent girls towards human papillomavirus infection: where to intervene to improve vaccination coverage

Background: HPV vaccine coverage is far from ideal in Valencia, Spain, and this could be partially related to the low knowledge about the disease and the vaccine, therefore we assessed these, as well as the attitude towards vaccination in adolescent girls, and tried to identify independently associated factors that could potentially be modified by an intervention in order to increase vaccine coverage. Methods: A cross sectional study was conducted in a random selection of schools of the Spanish region of Valencia. We asked mothers of 1278 girls, who should have been vaccinated in the 2011 campaign, for informed consent. Those that accepted their daughters’ participation, a questionnaire regarding the Knowledge of HPV infection and vaccine was passed to the girls in the school. Results: 833 mothers (65.1%) accepted participation. All their daughters’ responded the questionnaire. Of those, 89.9% had heard about HPV and they associated it to cervical cancer. Only 14% related it to other problems like genital warts. The knowledge score of the girls who had heard about HPV was 6.1/10. Knowledge was unrelated to the number of contacts with the health system (Pediatrician or nurse), and positively correlated with the discussions with classmates about the vaccine. Adolescents Spanish in origin or with an older sister vaccinated, had higher punctuation. 67% of the girls thought that the vaccine prevented cancer, and 22.6% felt that although prevented cancer the vaccine had important safety problems. 6.4% of the girls rejected the vaccine for safety problems or for not considering themselves at risk of infection. 71.5% of the girls had received at least one vaccine dose. Vaccinated girls scored higher knowledge (p = 0.05). Conclusion: Knowledge about HPV infection and vaccine was fair in adolescents of Valencia, and is independent to the number of contacts with the health system, it is however correlated to the conversations about the vaccine with their peers and the vaccination status. An action to improve HPV knowledge through health providers might increase vaccine coverage in the adolescents.

The SAAS-R: A New Instrument to Assess the School Attitudes of Students with High and Low Academic Achievement in Spain

We examined the psychometric properties of the School Attitude Assessment Survey–Revised in a Spanish population (n = 1,398). Confirmatory factor analysis procedures supported the instrument’s five-factor structure. The results of discriminant analysis demonstrated the predictive power of the School Attitude Assessment Survey–Revised scales as regards academic performance. Implications for education and assessment are discussed.

The college, the market, and the court, or, Woman's relation to education, labor, and law

by Caroline H. Dall.

Draft of law related to the settling of chambers after Commencement, 1742

One-page handwritten draft of a law created by the president and tutors requiring juniors to inform the Faculty of their intent to stay in dormitory rooms following Commencement. The document is undated and unsigned, but appears to be in the hand of President Edward Holyoke, and has a note in shorthand in the left margin. The text is included in College Book IV and was presented at a meeting of the Harvard Corporation on September 6, 1742.

Letters from Robert Hallowell Gardiner to his brother-in-law, William Tudor,

Four letters written during the Gardiner family’s journey through Maine and while they were settling in at Oaklands.

Letters from Robert Hallowell Gardiner to his brother-in-law, William Tudor,

Four letters in which Gardiner discusses progress of the church he was building on the estate and requests Tudor send him certain books from Boston.

Letters from Robert Hallowell Gardiner to his brother-in-law, William Tudor,

Four letters written from Oaklands. One letter from Emma expressing her grief and shock over the death of their father was finished by her husband, who described hearing the news from a friend, and Emma’s subsequent reaction. In other letters, Gardiner offers advice on resolving the elder William Tudor’s debts by selling off assets such as shares in the Boston Athenaeum and in a pew at Trinity Church. In one letter, Gardiner also offers his opinion regarding the prospects of Henry James (Harry) Tudor’s law career.