HPV vaccine knowledge doesn't predict vaccination

(HealthDay)—Neither parents' nor adolescents' knowledge about human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccines predicts vaccination compliance, according to a study published online Sept. 15 in Pediatrics.

Jessica Fishman, Ph.D., from the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, and colleagues surveyed residents from low-income, predominantly African-American neighborhoods (211 adolescents and 149 parents of another adolescent sample) to assess knowledge of HPV and HPV vaccination. Clinic reporting data were used to track adolescent vaccination.

The researchers found that on average, parents and adolescents answered slightly fewer than 50 percent of knowledge items correctly at baseline, with 5 percent of parents and 10 percent of adolescents not answering any knowledge items correctly. Only 13.4 percent of the parents' daughters received an HPV vaccination within 12 months, and 15.2 percent of the other adolescent sample did so. Neither parental nor adolescent knowledge was predictive of adolescent vaccination.

"Those with higher levels of knowledge were not more likely to obtain vaccination for themselves or their daughters. Ideally, future interventions will target factors related to vaccination," the authors write.

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