Trends in human papilloma virus vaccination uptake by sex and race/ethnicity among US adolescents and young adults, 2011-2020.

Abstract

10519 Background: High-risk strains of human papillomavirus (HPV) are associated with a variety of oral and anogenital cancers, many of which are preventable through HPV vaccination. In the US, completion of an HPV vaccination series is recommended for all individuals from age 9 through 26; however, national trends in HPV vaccination uptake across sex and racial/ethnic groups over the past decade are not well described. Methods: We analyzed data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey across 4 survey cycles spanning January 2011 to March 2020. We used univariate logistic regression to evaluate temporal trends in HPV vaccination uptake across sex and racial/ethnic strata, with the midpoint of each survey cycle modeled as a continuous independent variable. Vaccination uptake was defined as self/parent-reported receipt of ≥ 1 dose of an HPV vaccine series (estimates for 2 and 3 doses were unreliable due to recall bias and missing data). All estimates incorporated appropriate survey weights to be representative of the US population. Results: We identified 10,927 participants representing 70,066,252 individuals: mean age 17.4 years, 48.8% male, 54.9% White. Between 2011-March 2020, overall HPV vaccination uptake steadily increased from 23.3% to 43.0% ( P trend < 0.001; Table). HPV vaccination rates improved from 37.7% to 49.4% among females ( P trend < 0.001) and from 7.8% to 36.4% among males ( P trend < 0.001). HPV vaccination uptake increased similarly across all racial/ethnic strata by approximately 20%, with White individuals achieving the greatest vaccination uptake (45.5%) by March 2020. Conclusions: Among US adolescents and young adults, HPV vaccination uptake rose by ~20% overall and across all racial/ethnic groups. HPV vaccination uptake accelerated the most among males but still lags behind females, perhaps because routine vaccination wasn’t recommended for males until 2011, 5 years after it had been recommended for females. [Table: see text]