Facilitating Completion of HPV Vaccination

Facilitating the Completion of the 3-Dose Series of HPV Vaccination in Males and Females

With the surge in use of electronic media among adolescents, a strategy that has been utilized to increase HPV4 uptake in girls has been reminder text messaging to their parents. To date, no published study has looked at the effectiveness of texting adolescents themselves (especially boys) rather than their parents OR compared texting to social network sites to increase HPV knowledge and uptake of HPV vaccination in boys. Interactive technology-based interventions targeted at youth are feasible in North Carolina for the following reasons: (1) through the NC Minors' Consent Law adolescents can consent to the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of sexually transmitted diseases (N.C. Gen. Stat. § 90-21.5(a); and (2) many school based health centers can provide immunizations. Since HPV infection is a sexually transmitted infection, NC teens do not have to get consent for HPV prevention (i.e., vaccination).

To optimize HPV vaccination in young people, especially males, communication strategies are needed to motivate adolescents to get themselves vaccinated. Texting has been demonstrated to be a feasible, popular, and effective method of sexual health promotion to young people with a relatively low withdrawal rate, positive feedback, and an observed improvement in sexual health knowledge and STI testing (12). Social media communication strategies are a new and potentially effective channel for communicating public health messages about HPV vaccine that are also likely to increase HPV initiation and completion among adolescent girls in addition to boys.

According to the NC Immunization Registry, as of March 8, 2011, only 2% of boys ages 9-13 had received at least one dose of HPV vaccine. In the investigators continuity clinic less than 50 percent of adolescents are fully immunized. This project will identify social behavioral, emotional, and cognitive correlates and predictors that help explain why teens pursue, complete, and do not complete HPV vaccination, and develop a social media communication intervention collaboratively with teens to increase HPV vaccine initiation and completion.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Adolescent Immunizations Among Clinic Population

• Study Type: Observational
• Enrollment (Actual): 223

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • North Carolina
    • Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States, 27599
      • UNC Pediatric Clinic

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 11 years to 21 years (Child, Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

• Sampling Method: Non-Probability Sample

Study Population

Adolescent males and females age 11-21 at a Pediatric clinic

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• incomplete immunization

Exclusion Criteria:

• complete immunization

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Number of groups / cohorts

1

Cohorts and Interventions

Group / Cohort
Social media

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Time Frame
HPV vaccination uptake	2 years

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Tamara Coyne-Beasley, MD, MPH, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): May 1, 2012
• Primary Completion (Actual): November 9, 2015
• Study Completion (Actual): July 5, 2016

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: May 15, 2012
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: May 16, 2012
• First Posted (Estimate): May 17, 2012

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): April 18, 2017
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: April 17, 2017
• Last Verified: April 1, 2017

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Other Study ID Numbers: 11-1551