Talking about recommended age or fewer doses: what motivates HPV vaccination timeliness?

• Published in: Human vaccines & immunotherapeutics 2021-09, Vol.17 (9), p.3077-3080
• Main Authors: Margolis, Marjorie A, Brewer, Noel T, Shah, Parth D, Calo, William A, Alton Dailey, Susan, Gilkey, Melissa B
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adolescent; adolescent health; Child; Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; human papillomavirus infections/prevention & control; human papillomavirus vaccine; Humans; Papillomavirus Infections - prevention & control; Papillomavirus Vaccines; Parents; patient-provider communication; Short Report; Vaccination
• ISSN: 2164-5515; 2164-554X
• DOI: 10.1080/21645515.2021.1912550

HPV vaccination is recommended for U.S. adolescents at ages 11-12 and requires two versus three doses if the series is started before age 15. We evaluated how talking about recommended age or fewer doses motivates on-time HPV vaccination. Our national, online experiment randomized 1,263 parents of adolescents to view one of three messages about HPV vaccination recommendations or no message. Messages framed guidelines as recommending: vaccination at age 11-12; fewer doses for those who start vaccination at age 11-12; or, fewer doses for those who start vaccination before age 15. We then assessed parents' preferred age for HPV vaccination, categorizing preferences of ≤12 years as on-time. Parents who viewed "at age 11-12" versus no message more often preferred on-time HPV vaccination (63% vs. 43%,  .05). Parents who viewed "fewer doses before age 15" less often preferred on-time HPV vaccination (39%,