Improving Maternal Intention for HPV Vaccination Using Tailored Educational Materials – Results of a Pilot Study

Background: Interventions to increase adolescent human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination rates are needed.   Previous work suggests that providing individually-tailored educational materials may be effective at improving maternal willingness to have their daughters vaccinated against HPV.

Objectives: To determine whether providing an individually-tailored educational brochure improved maternal willingness to have their daughters vaccinated against HPV when compared to untailored educational material.

Methods: We performed a pilot study among 18 HPV-vaccine hesitant mothers of 11-15 year old girls.  After completing a questionnaire that assessed for 21 potential barriers to HPV and several demographic and experiential characteristics, mothers were then randomly assigned to receive either a 2-page educational brochure that was individually tailored to include their daughter’s race, daughter’s name, mother’s previous HPV and vaccination history and mothers top three concerns about the vaccine (intervention group) or the HPV Vaccine Information Sheet available from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (control group).   The primary outcome assessed was the mean change in HPV vaccination intention (possible range 0-11) among mothers before and after viewing the educational material. 

Results: Both groups reported similar demographics, prior vaccine refusal, HPV-related medical history and barriers to vaccination.  Mean change in maternal intention for HPV vaccination was higher among mothers in the experimental group than in the control group (2.14 vs. 1.33) though this result was not statistically significant (p=0.14).

Conclusions: Our pilot study suggests that providing mothers with tailored educational information may be superior to providing generic information for increasing maternal intentions for having their adolescent daughter vaccinated against HPV.  Our study is currently ongoing with a goal of recruiting 80 mothers.  This sample size will provide improved statistical ability to assess changes in vaccination intention.  We will also assess for differences between the two groups in the proportion of daughters receiving HPV vaccines.