Assessing HPV vaccination perceptions with online social media in Italy

Abstract

ObjectiveBecause of the widespread availability of the internet and social media, people often collect and disseminate news online making it important to understand the underlying mechanisms to steer promotional strategies in healthcare. The aim of this study is to analyze perceptions regarding the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine in Italy.MethodsFrom August 2015 to July 2016, articles, news, posts, and tweets were collected from social networks, posts on forums, blogs, and pictures about HPV. Using other keywords and specific semantic rules, we selected conversations presenting the negative or positive perceptions of HPV. We divided them into subgroups depending on the website, publication date, authors, main theme, and transmission modality.ResultsMost conversations occurred on social networks. Of all the conversations regarding HPV, more than 50% were about vaccination. With regard to conversations exclusively on the HPV vaccine, 47%, 32%, and 21% were positive, negative and neutral, respectively. Only 9% of the conversations mentioned the vaccine trade name and, in these conversations, perception was almost always negative. We observed many peaks in positive conversation trends compared with negative trends. The peaks were related to the web dissemination of particular news regarding HPV vaccination.ConclusionsIn this study we have shown how mass media influences the diffusion of both negative and positive perceptions about HPV vaccines and suggest better ways to inform people about the importance of HPV vaccination.

Human Papillomavirus Infection and Vaccination: Knowledge, Attitude and Perception among Undergraduate Men and Women Healthcare University Students in Switzerland

“…While a study conducted in the United States found that the use of video messages was a potential tool to increase knowledge about HPV [30], other trials have also shown that social networks (e.g., Facebook, Instagram, Twitter etc.) can be used as complementary tools to deliver conventional prevention messages [31][32][33].…”

Spreading of misinformation on mass media and digital platforms regarding vaccines. A systematic scoping review on stakeholders, policymakers, and sentiments/behavior of Italian consumers

“… 45 , 47 , 53 , 55 Otherwise, non-institutional websites showed an 8.6-fold increase in belonging to the category of negative or ambiguous pages; 45 , 53 these pages used a relatively high number of images that could improve the intelligibility of the text, as the denotative meaning of technical terms, names of major vaccine manufacturers and other registered trademarks (Big Pharma conspiracy theory), accentuated fatal risks (high usage of the word death) and words related to politics (conspiracy theories). 24 , 29 , 34 , 45 These findings were confirmed by analyzing keywords relevant to tweets with positive sentiments (responsibility, disease, thanks, ignorance, science, medicine and save) and negative sentiments (damage, pharmaceutical, doctor, mercury, baby, drug, law, and oblige). 29 Interestingly, Arif N et al 39 showed that nearly 71% of commercial websites had a negative bias toward vaccines, after searching for vaccination-related topics on search engines YouTube videos with a negative tone were more viewed, shared, and had more likes than those with a positive or neutral tone.…”

“…Marchetti F et al 14 analyzed Italian social media users’ conversations about the rotavirus vaccine (2019–2020); a total of 2250 mentions on rotavirus were recorded, of which 60.7% were negative, 29.8% positive, and 9.4 unclassified, with Facebook representing the primary source of influence (63%). Angioli R et al, in a similar study, 34 analyzed 5,347 conversations on the general topic of HPV vaccine (2015–2016), showing that conversations with negative perceptions were characterized by some peaks that could be related to particular events; most of the negative conversations (77%) came from social networks. Fadda M et al 50 evaluated the pediatric vaccination topic on three Italian online forums for 2008–2014, showing that the posted topics were slightly more negative (52.1%) than positive.…”

From the Infection to the Immunotherapy in Cervical Cancer: Can We Stop the Natural Course of the Disease?

“…Finally, post-licensure safety monitoring of the quadrivalent HPV vaccine (from 2009 to 2015) showed the absence of unexpected safety concerns [19]. Although the WHO stated that vaccines are safe, side effects represent the main reason why people are still doubtful regarding HPV vaccination [20]. In conclusion, HPV vaccines seem to be safe but longer follow-up is still needed to assess safety of this vaccine.…”