In the U.S. uptake of HPV vaccine remains significantly behind the Healthy People 2020 goal of 80% series completion. While some countries have implemented very successful HPV immunization programs, others have encountered significant political, policy, and logistical barriers. In the U.S., the policy, implementation, and adoption of HPV vaccine has been particularly complicated. As with many other medical innovations, diffusion and adoption is not always rapid and depends on a variety of social and cultural factors, as well as the nature of the innovation itself. Research indicates there is a great deal of 1) confusion and uncertainty about HPV vaccine and 2) concomitant misinformation about the HPV vaccine, who it is meant for, and the conditions under which it is maximally effective. The objective of our study was to develop and evaluate a web-based approach to encourage HPV vaccination in New Mexico, an ethnically diverse U.S. state.
With funding from National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, our team conducted a project to systematically develop a set of web-based tools to prompt the informed adoption of HPV vaccination. We used Diffusion of Innovations Theory and related research on Informed Decision Making to guide the iterative development of a website for parents of young female adolescents.
Our presentation will review the website (GoHealthyGirls.org) and present development and preliminary efficacy data from the study. Subsequent funding from the Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) and the National Cancer Institute (NCI) has provided the opportunity to translate the GoHealthyGirls website to a mobile device responsive format (mobile web app: Vacteens) for parents and girls and to develop a parallel web app intervention for young adolescent boys and their parents. Both new projects will involve large cluster randomized controlled efficacy trials with parents and their adolescent children in New Mexico clinics to determine the impact of these mobile web apps on informed decision making and uptake for the HPV vaccine.
This presentation will discuss the progress and initial results of these ongoing research efforts and the implications for reaching HPV vaccine uptake goals set by Healthy People 2020 in the United States. The presentation will focus on how web-based interventions show promise for reaching HPV vaccine uptake goals. A mobile web app can make decision-making tools widely available on popular mobile platforms such as tablet computers and smartphones as well as personal computers.