HPV Vaccine Acceptability Among College Students

Learning Objectives for this Presentation:
By the end of the presentation participants will be able to describe correlates of HPV vaccine acceptability among college students.
By the end of the presentation participants will be able to predict implications of college students being vaccinated against HPV.
By the end of the presentation participants will be able to describe potentially successful HPV vaccine marketing efforts for the college student population.

Background:
HPV, the most common STI in the United States, peaks in prevalence among women aged 22-25 years. Few studies have addressed relationships between HPV health beliefs and vaccine acceptance, and to our knowledge, no previous studies have investigated HPV vaccine acceptance among a random sample of undergraduate males and females.

Objectives:
The purpose of this study was to assess the relationships between HPV health beliefs and vaccine acceptance among undergraduate males and females.

Methods:
A random sample of 1800 undergraduate students at a private university in the Southeast was recruited to participate in an anonymous web-based survey that aimed to assess HPV health beliefs among college students as well as to determine correlates of HPV vaccine acceptability.

Results:
The likelihood of getting vaccinated decreased as factors (cost, number of doses, side effects and provider recommendation) became less ideal. Likelihood of getting the vaccine was positively correlated with perceived susceptibility to HPV and perceived benefits of the vaccine, whereas likelihood of getting the vaccine was negatively correlated with perceived barriers.

Conclusions:
Findings from this research suggest that marketing efforts for the HPV vaccine in the undergraduate population should focus on increasing individuals' perceived susceptibility to HPV while emphasizing the benefits of getting the vaccine and minimizing the potential barriers to vaccination.