Culturally-specific education can change perception of risk of Human Papillomavirus infection and need for vaccination

Safe and effective vaccines have been developed that protect against high-risk strains of HPV, but uptake is relatively low. We previously identified factors such as sexual attitudes and HPV knowledge that impact the intent of Christian parents to vaccinate their children against HPV. One of the major factors that decreased vaccine utilization was the belief that they did not need to vaccinate their children because of their moral beliefs. We hypothesized that culturally specific interventions in the form of short videos would be effective at improving HPV vaccine attitudes. We made three short educational videos, one with a Christian focus, one informational about HPV, and one control. Videos were distributed electronically with accompanying surveys, and attitudes were measured before and after watching a randomly selected video. The religious-focused and educational interventions significantly (P=0.001) improved attitudes about HPV vaccination. The religiously-focused video also significantly diminished the belief that the HPV vaccine is unnecessary because of a family’s values (p=0.023). Parents significantly credited both interventions with improving their intent to vaccinate their children against HPV (p<0.001 for both). These results suggest that culturally focused educational interventions are effective at influencing vaccine attitudes, even when those attitudes are based on religious or cultural feelings. Highly specific interventions are likely to be necessary for optimal improvement in vaccine hesitancy. Supported in part by a research grant from Investigator-Initiated Studies Program of Merck Sharp & Dohme LLC.