The threat of a sexually transmitted disease — not cancer risks — motivate more young women to get vaccinated against human papillomavirus, a recent study finds.
Younger women were more likely to talk to a doctor about the human papillomavirus, or HPV, vaccine after receiving a survey focusing on genital wart prevention, compared to a similar group whose surveys focused on preventing cervical cancer, according to the study, published online in January in Health Communication.
“Talking about cervical cancer and getting the vaccine to prevent cancer 50 years down the line might not be as effective as the more short-term consequences that it can prevent genital warts,” said study co-author Janice Krieger, PhD, assistant professor in the school of communication at Ohio State University.
HPV is spread through sexual activity and can lead to genital warts or cervical cancer, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. CDC recommends girls and boys as young as ages 11-12 receive the vaccine.
During the study, questionnaires were distributed to 188 female Ohio State University students and 115 of their mothers about the vaccine. The student questionnaire focused on how a student should talk to a doctor about the vaccine. The mother questionnaire asked mothers to encourage their daughters to talk with a doctor about the vaccine.
Half of the mothers and daughters received questionnaires that focused on preventing genital warts. The second half received ones that focused on cervical cancer prevention.
The students whose surveys emphasized genital wart prevention were more likely to talk to their doctor about the vaccine than students whose surveys focused on preventing cancer. The mothers did not have a strong response about preventing one outcome over another, according to the study.
Krieger said the study has implications on future media messages about the HPV vaccine. She said brochures about the HPV vaccine could focus on ways a physician can bring up the subject with a female patient, and vice versa.
“I think it’s important for health care providers to initiate these conversations with young women,” Krieger told The Nation’s Health. “If they lack self efficacy, they might not be willing to bring it up so it is important that health care providers do that.”
One recommendation is for physicians to say that they recommend all of their patients in a certain age range receive the vaccine, to avoid the feeling that a physician is singling out one patient.
“It takes the focus off the individual and more on the public health issue of herd immunization, the idea that we want to vaccinate as many people as possible against HPV,” Krieger said.
For more information, visit http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10410236.2012.734914.
- Copyright The Nation’s Health, American Public Health Association
