Abstract C132: A multilevel approach to accelerating the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine at a rural clinic for Native and non-Native youth

Abstract

Abstract Accelerating the uptake of Human Papillomavirus (HPV) vaccinations is a priority for cancer prevention and an issue for mitigating cancer health disparities particularly among rural youth, both Native American and non-Native. The rate of HPV vaccinations for rural and Native adolescents is markedly lower than urban adolescents. Based on a Memorandum of Collaboration between the UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center and Northern Valley Indian Health (NVIH), a tribal health organization serving rural youth; funding from the National Cancer Institute; and the principles of community-based participatory research, we developed a multi-level approach to accelerate the HPV vaccination rates at the NVIH rural clinic in Willows, CA. Ultimately, the goal is to raise the HPV vaccination rates among patients ages 11-17 from the current 27% at this clinic to the Healthy People 2020 goal of 80%. Our presentation documents a year’s relationship-building that includes the intentional input and promising data from multiple levels for launching an accelerated HPV vaccination program, exemplifying the collaboration between NVIH and a NCI Comprehensive Cancer Center. Starting with community outreach and engagement, our multiple levels included provider and staff trainings; and parent workshops. We began by surveying 12 community members on their HPV vaccination knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors and learned that they had low knowledge of the HPV vaccine and stressed the importance of educating both the community as well as parents. We followed with training of 26 clinic providers and 44 staff (participants were from all four of NVIH’s medical clinics). Pre-tests were administered prior to the training and post-tests administered four months later. The training content had 3 objectives: (1) explaining the importance of HPV vaccinations and the rationale for vaccinating at ages 11-12; (2) providing an effective recommendation by clinicians; and (3) providing support to families to decide in favor of HPV vaccination. While there was attrition from pre to post tests, we achieved significant quantitative realignment of the rank order of HPV vaccination (from 3rd to most important) over other vaccinations and increased confidence in their ability to make a strong HPV vaccination recommendation (14% and 6% respectively). Interviews from parents provided insights on their perspectives of HPV vaccination that should be incorporated. Our next steps will be to apply these findings into a multi-pronged HPV vaccination intervention program for rural Native and non-Native adolescents. Citation Format: Julie HT Dang, Duke LeTran, Alexandra Gori, Arzoo Mojadedi, Teresa Martens, Sharon McClure, Inder Wadhwa, Chester Austin, Moon S Chen, Jr. A multilevel approach to accelerating the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine at a rural clinic for Native and non-Native youth [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Twelfth AACR Conference on the Science of Cancer Health Disparities in Racial/Ethnic Minorities and the Medically Underserved; 2019 Sep 20-23; San Francisco, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2020;29(6 Suppl_2):Abstract nr C132.