4. HPV Vaccine Visits as an Opportunity for Health Care Providers to Offer Guidance About Sexual Health

Abstract

gion. Initiation status also did not differ based on maternal history of an HPV-related condition (abnormal Pap, colposcopy, cervical cancer) or having a family member or friendwith cervical cancer. However, vaccine completion differed by daughters’ race,withsignificantlymorenon-Hispanicwhites (40.4%) receiving 3 doses of vaccine than Hispanic (22.0%) and non-Hispanic black (26.2%) participants (p .001). Among non-vaccinated girls, mothers reported the following reasons for non-vaccination: concerns about vaccine side effects (36%) anddanger (36%); not recommendedbyprovider (34%);believednot towork(13%); concern about eligibility or cost (11%); prolonged time since last physician visit (11%); and concern the vaccine would encourage daughter to have sex (8%). Conclusions: Our findings confirm continued increases in HPV vaccination rates. Still, over half of our sample had not initiated vaccination, a finding comparable to results of the most recent NIS. We found no evidence of demographic or socioeconomic disparities with respect to vaccine initiation, but did find that black and Hispanic adolescents were less likely to have completed vaccination. Additional research is needed to better understand barriers to vaccine completion, especially among minority adolescents. In addition, given that the main reasons for non-vaccination were concerns about vaccine safety and reported lack of provider recommendation, continued educational interventionswith physicians, patients and their parents regarding vaccine safety and efficacy are clearly needed. Sources of Support: Source of Funding: NIH R56 AI07909001A1.