Promoting Human Papilloma Virus Immunization Among Adolescents: An Evidence-Based Practice Project Proposal

Cheung, Wing Yee; Cheung, Wing Yee

Problem: Despite the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)’s guideline on routine human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination at age 11, the vaccination coverage rates for both genders by age 13 to 15 remain lower than 50% in New York City, imposing risk of future HPV-related cancers among unprotected children. Many pediatric providers do not provide parents with strong recommendations and thus, parents are not likely to immunize their children.

Goal: To increase HPV vaccination rates of boys and girls aged 11-17 years.

Objective: To increase parental acceptance of provider recommendations for teenage HPV vaccination.

Literature: Providers’ strong recommendations were reported as the key parent-focused intervention to promote adolescent HPV vaccine. Research also supported the recommendation message by emphasizing the vaccine efficacy in future HPV-related cancer prevention. Parental attitudes and beliefs about adolescent HPV were validated measures of the intervention effectiveness.

Design: Based on evidence in the literature, gynecology providers will give the mothers' of vaccine-eligible adolescents strong recommendations on adolescent HPV vaccination during gynecology consultation. The high efficacy of timely HPV vaccine in preventing future HPV-related cancers will be emphasized in the provider-mother conversations. Parents will be given a 2-page CDC supplemental leaflet about teenage HPV vaccination before the consultation.

Methods: The project is a one-group pretest-posttest design in a local gynecology outpatient clinic. A convenience sample of 20 patients who have children 11-17 years old will, following IRB approval, be invited to complete a 46-item 7-point Likert HPV Attitude and Beliefs Scale developed by Perez and colleagues (2016) before and after intervention.

Data Analysis: Descriptive statistics will be used and pre- and post-data will be compared by Wilcoxon signed ranks test at a 95% confidence level.

Recommendations: If the proposed intervention works, HPV vaccine promotion among parents should be expanded into gynecology settings. If the intervention does not work, additional interventions will be explored to improve the skills of pediatric providers in giving strong recommendations about adolescent HPV vaccination to parents.