Factors affecting children’s HPV vaccination in Austria: Evidence from a parent survey

Abstract

Human papillomavirus (HPV) is a sexually transmitted infection that causes cervical cancer, head and neck cancer, other urogenital cancers, and genital warts. In Austria, where HPV vaccination is free for children, the vaccination rate nevertheless remains insufficient for herd immunity against HPV. Using a cross-sectional survey of parents ( N = 334) in the state of Tyrol, Austria, we examined parents’ reasons for rejecting children’s HPV vaccination and key predictors of vaccination intention for their children, including knowledge about HPV, attitude toward vaccination, sources of information about the HPV vaccine, socioeconomic factors, and HPV vaccination intention. Data analyzed using descriptive statistics and logistic regression modeling revealed an overall 81.9% acceptance rate of HPV vaccination. The most common reasons for vaccine hesitancy were a fear of side effects, a perceived lack of information, and the perception that children are too young to be vaccinated. A high level of knowledge about HPV was significantly associated with vaccine acceptance for female but not male children. Negative attitude toward vaccination was significantly related to lower vaccine acceptance, and parents who reported informing themselves about HPV vaccination from online sources were less likely to accept vaccination. Such results call for more educational measures to reduce misinformation about HPV vaccination and thereby reduce the fear of its side effects and promote early vaccination. More information is also needed to improve parents’ attitude toward and their knowledge about vaccination, the dissemination of which should focus on the benefits of vaccines for children of both sexes.

Monkeypox awareness and low vaccination hesitancy among men who have sex with men in China

“…We found that the improvement of relevant information following could attenuate vaccination hesitancy and help promote herd immunity. The lack of information following was also identified as a reason for HPV vaccine hesitancy in a cross‐sectional survey of MSM in Amsterdam; 30 however, researchers in Austria raised the adverse impact of misinformation on vaccination acceptance 31 . Although it has been quite common for MSM to approach monkeypox‐related information at an ideal frequency in our study, most of them wrongly understood about the global situation and trend of cases in the monkeypox outbreak.…”

Human papillomavirus vaccination and contributing factors of vaccination intention among adolescents and young adults in China from a socio‐ecological perspective: A cross‐sectional study

“…This result may be attributed to a lack of relevant education in school as over half of the students had not received knowledge about HPV from school. A previous study reported that obtaining information about the HPV vaccine though distributing informational pamphlets from school enabled parents to accept HPV vaccinations (Waser et al., 2022). Therefore, it is necessary to strengthen school‐based efforts to improve HPV related knowledge and correspondingly increase vaccination intention among adolescents and young adults in future public health nursing practice.…”

“…In recent years, HPV vaccination among sexually active college students who were in late adolescence or early adulthood has also received attention (Xu et al., 2021; Zhang et al., 2022). However, most of previous research on the influencing factors of HPV vaccination focused on individual demographic characteristics, personal knowledge and attitude (Waser et al., 2022; Xu et al., 2021). The socio‐ecological model (SEM) posits that individuals interact with multilevel systems that directly or indirectly influence their attitudes and behaviors around preventive activities.…”

Human Papillomaviruses in Adolescents: Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices of Pharmacists Regarding Virus and Vaccination in France

“…This interest in summary leaflets has also been shown among GPs and pharmacists in New Zealand [ 80 ] and Canada [ 75 ]. In addition, several studies have demonstrated their effectiveness in increasing the acceptability of HPV vaccination [ 81 , 82 ], Herpes Zoster vaccination [ 83 ], or the proper use of antibiotics [ 84 ].…”