Abstract 851: Characteristics of adult men who are willing to give HPV vaccine to their daughters in the United States: a national survey

Abstract

Abstract Background: The uptake of Human Papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination needs improvement. However, efforts to improve uptake of HPV vaccine is often concentrated on women. Although men can influence the uptake of the vaccine by their children, the opinion of adult men in the United States on HPV vaccination has not been well studied. Aim: To evaluate the willingness of adult men to vaccinate their daughters for HPV Methods: Health Information National Trends Survey (HINTS) 2007 was used to capture the opinion of 1,927 men (weighted population size = 72,633,670) who answered questions on their willingness to let their daughters receive HPV vaccine. We compared the characteristics of those who were willing to let their daughters receive HPV vaccine with those who were not. We used survey weights in all analyses, and variance estimations were performed using Taylor series linearization to account for the complex survey design. We used logistic regression models to calculate odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI). Results: A total of 1,554 (80.7%) men were willing to let their daughters receive HPV vaccine while 373 (19.3%) would not let their daughters receive the vaccine. The most common reasons for disagreeing with vaccination were: not knowing enough about it (27.7%); vaccine safety concerns (16.5%); and “my child is not sexually active” (13.7%). Of note, less than 1% felt the vaccine will promote promiscuity. Demographic (age, race, marital status, education status, and health insurance) and lifestyle characteristics (smoking and body mass index) did not predict men who would let their daughters get HPV vaccine. Conclusion: A high percentage of men are willing to let their daughters receive HPV vaccine suggesting that all men should be engaged in the conversation to improve HPV vaccine uptake in the United States. Primary care physicians should make it a priority to discuss the HPV vaccine with men and women more frequently to enlighten the population and allay their fears about the safety of the vaccine. Citation Format: Jessica Rogers, Kolapo A. Idowu, Rahmatalai Coker, Hamidat Segunmaru, Mohammad Daremipouran, Clinton Burnside, Carla D. Williams, Adeyinka O. Laiyemo. Characteristics of adult men who are willing to give HPV vaccine to their daughters in the United States: a national survey. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 106th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2015 Apr 18-22; Philadelphia, PA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2015;75(15 Suppl):Abstract nr 851. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2015-851