With a high incidence of cervical cancer and a low prevalence of screening for the disease, mass vaccination of the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine has the potential to reduce the burden of cervical cancer in Malaysia. While much of the focus has been onvaccinating school-aged girls, the factors that drive vaccination among eligible young women in Malaysia have not been extensively studied. The purpose of this study is to determine the proportion of the sample that received a vaccination, among those who recall having a recommendation for the vaccine during a visit with a physician in the past two years. A survey was carried out in a private university in Malaysia, which recruited a convenience sample 223 participants who were female Malaysian students, aged between 18 and 26 years old. 70.9% of the respondents reported that they had at least one visit with the physician in the past two years, among which 20.9% recalled that they received a recommendation for the HPV vaccine during their visit. 66.7% of respondents who recalled a recommendation were vaccinated with the HPV vaccine. The prevalence of HPV vaccination in this study population is 18.4%. A physician's recommendation may serve as an introduction and/or encouraging factor for HPV vaccine acceptance among young women in Malaysia. However, further research is required to understand the role physicians can play in increasing vaccination rates in this population.
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