ASPO Abstracts

Easing concerns about HPV vaccine and counseling patients to get it: A national experiment

Authors: Shah PD; Brewer NT; Calo WA; Gilkey MB; Alton Daily S; Todd K; Margolis MA

Category: Behavioral Science & Health Communication
Conference Year: 2019

Abstract Body:
Objective. Recommending HPV vaccine by first announcing children are due for it increasesuptake, but evidence does not yet identify how best to counsel parents who raise concerns. We sought tounderstand the impact of easing parent concerns and then counseling them to get HPV vaccine for their adolescentchildren.Methods. In 2017-2018, we surveyed a national sample of 1,196 U.S. parents of childrenages 9-17. Based on the Announcement Approach training previously shown to be effective (hpviq.org), we recordedand shared brief videos of a pediatrician 1) announcing the child was due for HPV vaccine (shared with allparents), and then 2) offering additional information (shared with some parents). In a 2x2 experiment, parentssaw an additional video with additional information varied whether the pediatrician in the video attempted to easea concern the parents raised earlier in the survey (“ease” condition), saw an additional video counseling theparent to get the vaccine for their child (“counsel” condition), saw both additional videos, or saw neither. Results. The ease video led to higher parent confidence in HPV vaccine (p<.01) and beliefthat the provider had made a strong recommendation (both p<.001). Most importantly, the ease video led to higherintention to get HPV vaccine for their children (p<.001). The impact of easing concerns on intentions wasmediated by higher confidence (p<.05). In contrast, the counsel video had no impact on confidence ormotivation to vaccinate, although it did to a lesser extent increase belief that the provider had made a strongrecommendation (both p<.001).Conclusion. Addressing parent concerns about HPV vaccine can increase confidence andintentions to vaccinate. Provider trainings on how to recommend HPV vaccine should emphasize announcing childrenare due and easing parent concerns.

Keywords: HPV vaccine;Provider communication