Effects of Information Framing on Human Papillomavirus Vaccination

Abstract

Background: In June 2006, the first vaccine to prevent human papillomavirus (HPV) transmission was approved for use in females in the United States. Because the vaccine was approved for females as young as 9, its success depends on parents' and individuals' willingness to accept vaccination. Little is known about how attitudes toward this vaccine will be influenced by the way the vaccine is portrayed in the media or in public debate. Methods: To assess the effects of information framing on intentions to vaccinate self or female children, if appropriate, 635 adults read one of three short descriptive paragraphs about the vaccine, each of which emphasized a different aspect of the vaccine. Participants were then asked about their intentions to vaccinate under cost or no-cost conditions. Results: Women who read that the vaccine protects only against cervical cancer had significantly higher intentions to vaccinate themselves when the vaccine was available at little or no cost compared with women who read alternate versions of the descriptive paragraph, F(2,325) ϭ 5.74, p ϭ 0.004. Conclusions: How the HPV vaccine is framed may affect vaccination intentions under certain conditions. Women may be more receptive to the vaccine if it is framed as a cervical cancer prevention tool rather than a sexually transmitted infection (STI) prevention tool.

Provider communication about HPV vaccination: A systematic review

“…Message testing to understand the impact of providers' communication content on parents' HPV vaccine decision making and satisfaction could be especially useful. Although the broader literature on message framing has yield mixed results as to the benefits of gain-versus loss-framed messages, [113][114][115] other areas of potential importance include the relative influence of different prevention messages in terms of disease types and number of diseases, [116][117][118] the length or amount of content delivered, and cognitive versus affective approaches to conveying HPV vaccine-related information.…”

What are the factors that contribute to parental vaccine-hesitancy and what can we do about it?

“…Leader et al compared different informational messages about the vaccine. 59 Participants who read that the vaccine protects only against cervical cancer were more willing to vaccinate themselves or their daughters, suggesting that framing the information about the protective effects of the vaccine may have more significant effects if not focusing on the fact that HPV is a sexually transmitted disease.…”

Human papillomavirus vaccine delivery strategies that achieved high coverage in low- and middle-income countries

“…Framing community awareness messages in terms of "cancer prevention" could also have had an influence. 37 Finally, parents whose daughters were only partially vaccinated or not vaccinated at all cited reasons that were primarily associated with the vaccination programme, whose schedule can be modified, rather than opposition to the vaccine itself. The main barriers to vaccination were girls being absent from school on the vaccination day, limited awareness of the vaccination programme, insufficient information about cervical cancer, the HPV vaccine or the HPV vaccination programme, and difficulty in determining a girl's eligibility.…”