Abstract
BackgroundHuman papillomavirus (HPV) is a common sexually transmitted virus that can lead to severe diseases in both women and men. Today, HPV vaccination is offered to females only across Europe. We aimed to examine parental attitudes to HPV vaccination of their sons given brief information about HPV in both genders.MethodsA literature study on acceptability of male HPV vaccination was carried out to inform the construction of a study questionnaire. Following up on a Danish study from 2012, this questionnaire was applied in 1837 computer assisted interviews with parents of sons in the UK, Germany, France and Italy. In each country, the parents were representative in terms of geographical dispersion, city size and age of sons in the household. The applied questionnaires took the varying vaccination policies and delivery systems into account. The data were analysed pooled and for each country using significant statistical tests (chi-2) with a 95 % confidence interval.ResultsApproximately ¾ of parents in the UK, Germany and Italy were in favour of HPV vaccination of their sons. In France, this applied to 49 % of respondents. Favourable parents wanted to protect their sons from disease and found gender equality important. Parents in doubt about male HPV vaccination needed more information about HPV diseases in men and male HPV vaccination; Rejecting parents were generally sceptical of vaccines and feared vaccination side-effects. Parents in countries with active vaccination policies (UK and Italy) tended to trust the importance of national vaccination programmes. Parents in countries with passive vaccination strategies (Germany and France) had greater need for information from health care professionals (HCP) and public health authorities.ConclusionGiven brief information about HPV in both genders, parental acceptance of HPV vaccination of sons is as high as acceptance levels for girls. All parents should be informed about HPV to make informed decisions about HPV vaccination for their children. There is a need for joint efforts from public health authorities and HCPs to provide parents with such information.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12889-015-1863-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
Highlights
Human papillomavirus (HPV) is a common sexually transmitted virus that can lead to severe diseases in both women and men
Pooled analysis Given brief oral information on HPV-related disease in males, most parents in Germany, United Kingdom (UK) and Italy were in favour of HPV vaccination of their sons (70–75 %)
Two factors play a major role in HPV vaccination uptake: knowledge and structural incentives
Summary
Human papillomavirus (HPV) is a common sexually transmitted virus that can lead to severe diseases in both women and men. HPV vaccination is offered to females only across Europe. Female vaccination against human papillomavirus (HPV) infection is included in vaccination calendars across the EU with the primary aim to prevent cervical cancer (CC). Two HPV vaccines exist, of which quadrivalent HPV vaccination (Gardasil) protects against oncogenic HPV 16 and 18 (causing around 70 % of CC) as well as types 6 and 11 causing most cases of genital warts (GW). The bivalent vaccine (Cervarix) protects against HPV types 16 and 18. Oncogenic HPV, types 16 and 18, cause other cancers in addition to CC. In Europe, approximately 340.000 cases per year of HPV vaccine preventable diseases affect men and women, respectively [3]. The number of non-cervical cancers is almost similar to CC [4]
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