The association of caregiver attitudes, information sources, and trust with HPV vaccine initiation among adolescents

ABSTRACT

This study described caregiver attitudes and the information sources they access about HPV vaccination for adolescents and determined their influence on human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination initiation. An online survey was administered to 1,016 adults in July 2021. Participants were eligible if they were the caregiver of a child aged 9–17 residing in Mississippi, Arkansas, Tennessee, Missouri, and select counties in Southern Illinois. Multivariate logistic regression was used to estimate the association of caregiver attitudes and information sources with HPV vaccination. Information from doctors or healthcare providers (87.4%) and internet sources other than social media (31.0%) were the most used sources for HPV vaccine information. The highest proportion of caregivers trusted their doctor or healthcare providers (92.4%) and family or friends (68.5%) as sources of information. The HPV vaccine series was more likely to be initiated in children whose caregivers agreed that the vaccine is beneficial (AOR = 4.39, 95% CI = 2.05, 9.39), but less likely with caregivers who were concerned about side effects (AOR = 0.61, 95% CI = 0.42, 0.88) and who received HPV vaccination information from family or friends (AOR = 0.57, 95% CI = 0.35, 0.93). This study found that caregivers’ attitudes, information sources, and trust in those sources were associated with their adolescent’s HPV vaccination status. These findings highlight the need to address attitudes and information sources and suggest that tailored interventions considering these factors could increase HPV vaccination rates.

KEYWORDS:

• HPV vaccine
• caregivers
• information sources
• trust
• adolescents
• attitudes
• children

Acknowledgments

We express our gratitude to the participants who played a role in this research, as well as the other members of the Silver Lab including Vikram Murugan and Serena Xiong.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Author contributions statement

Conception and design: A.A., T.S., A.R.B., H.M.B., L.M.K., V.L.S.T., and M.I.S. Analysis and interpretation of the data: A.A., T.S., S.H., and M.I.S. Drafting of the paper: A.A., T.S., and S.H. Revising it critically for intellectual content: A.A., A.R.B, H.M.B, L.M.K., V.L.S.T., and M.I.S. All authors approved of the final version to be published and agree to be accountable for all aspects of the work.

Data availability statement

Please contact the corresponding author at [email protected] for access to any of the data associated with this study.

Additional information

Funding

This project was supported by the HPV Research Group as part of the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and Washington University in St. Louis Implementation Sciences Collaborative, the American Lebanese and Syrian Associated Charities (ALSAC) of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, the National Cancer Institute under Grant [3P30CA091842-19S4], and Siteman Cancer Center.