Since the introduction of HPV vaccine, there have been a number of studies examining attitudes and barriers related to HPV vaccine uptake among adolescent and young adult women, parents, and healthcare providers. Through these surveys, a number of distinct themes regarding reasons for not taking the HPV vaccine have emerged, including lack of provider recommendation, lack of awareness about the vaccine and the need for vaccination, concerns about vaccine effectiveness, concerns about vaccine safety, the potential of a vaccine against a sexually transmitted infection to increase promiscuity, cost of the vaccine doses, and the lack of routine adolescent well-care visits. However, many of these studies have used endpoints related to HPV vaccine knowledge or intention to vaccinate rather than actual vaccination uptake. Interventions that use endpoints related to vaccination uptake rather than knowledge or intention to vaccinate, as well as those that address multiple levels of the healthcare decision making process, will be crucial in addressing routine immunization coverage among adolescents. At the end of the evaluation of this intervention package, the researchers of this study hope to have identified a comprehensive and easily scalable "shelf-ready" toolkit aimed at increasing uptake of vaccines that are indicated during adolescence. If successful, this package could easily be implemented on a national level.
In the evaluation study, the researchers will use a cluster-randomized trial design to test whether exposure to the intervention package increases the likelihood of vaccine receipt by an adolescent in a practice randomized to receive the intervention package compared to an adolescent in a practice randomized to the control (standard of care) arm. Participating pediatric practices will be pair-matched based on overall adolescent patient load and historical HPV vaccine uptake and pairs will be randomized to one of two study arms:
- Intervention arm: The pediatric practices randomized to this arm will receive the comprehensive adolescent vaccine promotion package. Practice physicians and staff will be familiarized with each component, and practices will be instructed to implement each vaccine-promotion component to the best of their ability.
- Control arm: The pediatric practices randomized to the control arm will not receive the comprehensive vaccine promotion package and will instead be instructed to continue offering their standard adolescent vaccination promotion practices to adolescent patients.
Parents of eligible adolescents at participating practices will be given the opportunity to take part in this study. At the initial visit, parents of adolescent patients will complete a brief questionnaire assessing their knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs about adolescent health, including protection against infectious diseases during adolescence. The parents will be contacted again three months later to complete a short follow-up interview on the general health of their adolescent child, immunization status, and attitudes regarding vaccination.
