HPV vaccine acceptance among adolescent males and their parents in two suburban pediatric practices. Issue 13 (24th March 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Khurana, Shalinee; Sipsma, Heather L.; Caskey, Rachel N.
• Is Part Of: Vaccine. Volume 33:Issue 13(2015)
• Page Start: 1620
• Page End: 1624
• Publication Date: 2015-03-24
• Subjects: Vaccines -- Periodicals; 615.372
• DOI: 10.1016/j.vaccine.2015.01.038
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0264-410X

Abstract

<abstract abstract-type="author" id="abs0005"> <title id="sect0005">Abstract</title> <sec> <title id="sect0010">Purpose</title> <p id="spar0005">To measure HPV vaccine acceptance among unvaccinated adolescent males and parents and correlate acceptance with knowledge, awareness, and personal experience.</p> </sec> <sec> <title id="sect0015">Methods</title> <p id="spar0010">Adolescent males ages 11–21 years old and their parents completed questionnaires measuring attitudes and knowledge about HPV vaccination and personal experience. <italic>Acceptance</italic> was defined as wanting the vaccine and <italic>conditional acceptance</italic> as wanting the vaccine if it would protect against genital warts or cervical cancer.</p> </sec> <sec> <title id="sect0020">Results</title> <p id="spar0015">Adolescent (<italic>n</italic> = 154) and parent (<italic>n</italic> = 121) vaccine acceptance was low (16% and 34%, respectively); however, conditional acceptance was higher. While adolescents had similar conditional acceptance for a vaccine against genital warts and cervical cancer, parents reported higher conditional acceptance for protection against genital warts. Independent predictors of acceptance included personal experience and demographic variables.</p> </sec> <sec> <title id="sect0025">Conclusions</title> <p id="spar0020">HPV vaccine acceptance among adolescents and parents was low. Conditional acceptance levels highlight the importance of education about a few important benefits of HPV vaccination, which may increase vaccination rates.</p> </sec> </abstract>